Events

Moderator:       Andrew M. Cameron, MD, PhD

Panelists:          Olivia S. Kates, MD, MA, and Jeffrey Natterman, Esq

Description

There are currently one hundred thousand Americans on a transplant waitlist and twenty patients die each day waiting for an organ that never comes.  The wait for a kidney transplant is now typically five to ten years.  Efforts to increase organ donation rates have proved largely unsuccessful.  A possible solution to this crisis is the use of genetically engineered pig organs, or xenotransplantation.  Long thought to be unachievable, Crispr/Cas technology has now enabled easy modification of animal genomes and pigs whose organs may be appropriate for transplantation.   Johns Hopkins made a major investment in xenotransplantation research several years ago and has become a world leader in the field.  Only two months ago the FDA approved the first clinical trial of xenotransplantation in humans, a study which will be led at Johns Hopkins.

Multiple questions persist as we rapidly approach the coming of xenotransplant patients to JHU.

Questions

• What are the unique risks to patients who receive a xenograft? What are the risks, if any, to those around them or to caregivers?
• Will xenografts work well enough to solve the organ shortage crisis?
• Who will be the first group of patients to receive a xenograft?

Learning objectives

1) Describe the organ shortage crisis and the possible solutions, including xenotransplantation

2) Outline the challenges inherent to transplanting organs from animals

3) Describe the role of a clinical trial in helping to determine safety and efficacy of xenografts and Johns Hopkins’ role in the trial.