
Xenotransplant gene editor eGenesis snags transplant expert as CMO; John Tsai, Susanne Schaffert among the hard cuts made at Novartis
The waitlist for an organ transplant in the US exceeds 100,000 people, but the biopharma world has long struggled to find solutions for the demand.
In comes the much-talked-about gene editing field. A Cambridge, MA biotech is attempting to use CRISPR and other gene editing tools to address the virology and immunology challenges associated with xenotransplantation, or taking organs and cells from one species and putting them in another. Pigs have often been considered the most likely route; a patient received a genetically modified pig heart transplant in January — the first attempt in decades — but tragically passed two months later.
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