A biotechnology company that is trying to create CRISPR-edited pigs so their organs could be safely transplanted into people has produced animals with a record number of genetic changes, the startup’s chief scientific officer and her colleagues reported on Thursday.
The eGenesis scientists had previously used CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to remove 25 potentially dangerous-to-humans viruses from pigs’ genome. In the new paper, CSO Luhan Yang and her teams at both eGenesis and Qihan Bio, another xenotransplantation company she co-founded, surpassed that milestone, creating cloned pigs with additional genetic changes. She calls them Pig3.0.
They edited out three pig genes that could cause patients’ immune systems to reject a pig organ and added nine human genes that should make pig organs more compatible with human physiology, especially in a way that reduces the chance of possibly fatal blood clots.
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