All articles tagged with #transplant medicine
In a groundbreaking experiment at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, a brain-dead patient was connected to a machine that circulated blood through a CRISPR-edited pig liver, demonstrating the potential for genetically engineered porcine organs to support the human circulatory system. The research, conducted by eGenesis, marks a significant advancement in transplant medicine and the use of CRISPR technology.
A surgical team at NYU Langone Health in New York successfully performed the world's first whole-eye transplant in a living person, along with a partial face transplant, on Aaron James, a military veteran from Arkansas who suffered extensive facial injuries from an electric shock accident. Although Aaron cannot see out of the transplanted eye yet, his medical team is hopeful that vision may be restored in the future. The procedure, which involved transplanting the entire left eye and parts of the face from a single donor, marks a significant advancement in transplant medicine and could potentially benefit patients who have experienced eye loss due to trauma or cancer.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have successfully transplanted vitrified and rewarmed rat kidneys, a breakthrough that could revolutionize transplant medicine. If the technique is successfully translated to humans, it could save tens of thousands of lives each year in the US alone. However, scaling up from rats to humans will require further scientific breakthroughs, and clinical trials are known to be challenging. Additionally, creating a nationwide network of cryopreserved organ banks will take time and raise ethical questions about who receives which kind of transplant.