S5.08 Have a heart: the science of xenotransplantation
Hello and welcome to Genetics Unzipped, the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Sally Le Page. In this episode, we're delving into the seemingly science fiction world of xenotransplantation, that is, taking organs from animals and using them as organ transplants for humans.
In January of this year, surgeons performed the first ever operation to transplant a heart from a genetically modified pig into a human, a 57-year-old man called David Bennett. Mr Bennett had been suffering from severe heart failure, and as he was not eligible for a human heart transplant, he consented to this ground-breaking operation.
Rohin Francis, image courtesy of Rohin Francis
Rohin Francis: one small step for a heart
To find out more, I sat down with Dr Rohin Francis, a consultant cardiologist who also runs the popular science YouTube channel, MedLife Crisis. When Rohin and I spoke in early February, the patient Mr Bennett was defying expectations and had survived for a month after the operation. However, since recording this interview, he has sadly passed away, two months after receiving the new heart, and it has not been made public whether this was due to an issue with the xenotransplant itself, or a consequence of his general poor health.
This is still a remarkable scientific and medical development, so I asked Rohin how we have arrived at a place where we can use organs from animals as transplants for humans. Click here to find out what Rohin had to say…
Angelika Schnieke: making pigs more human
We've just heard how scientists have manipulated 10 genes in a pig to produce a pig heart that could be transplanted into a human without the human immune system rejecting it. But how exactly do you produce such a pig? And are we at risk of transferring more than just the heart from the pig into humans? Could we be setting ourselves up for a new pig-human zoonotic virus?
Dr Kat Arney raised some of these concerns with Professor Angelika Schnieke, the chair of livestock biotechnology at the Technical University of Munich. Click here to find out what Angelika said…
Angelika Schnieke, image courtesy of Angelika Schnieke
Hap-pea birthday Mendel
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birthday of the great-great-grandfather of genetics, Gregor Mendel, The Genetics Society is inviting primary and secondary schoolchildren in the UK to submit artwork based on Mendel’s discovery of the rules of inheritance!
It can be a drawing, collage, sculpture, or any other creative work. The best artwork will be featured on the cover of a special issue of Heredity, the official journal of the Genetics Society. And the winning student will get a £100 voucher and their school will get £500 towards science equipment.
Students from primary and secondary schools can take part by submitting a high-resolution image of the artwork, together with the artist’s name, age, materials used and school’s name to theteam@genetics.org.uk with the subject line: ‘Hap-pea Birthday Mendel’ by the 13th May. Each student can submit up to three pieces of artwork, and please be aware that this competition is only for children in the UK. You can find out more by going to https://genetics.org.uk/hap-pea-birthday-mendel/
That’s all for now. Thanks to our guests Rohin Francis and Angelika Schnieke.
We’ll be back next time unpacking the balance between nature, nurture, and a third component that often gets overlooked: the wobble.
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
This episode of Genetics Unzipped was written and presented and produced by Sally Le Page. It is made by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk. Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
