The availability of cells, tissues, and organs that are safe, widely available, and sufficiently immune-compatible to be transplanted into anyone is the promise of regenerative medicine. The question of where and how to source these precious therapeutic building blocks is complex and the topic of ongoing research.

 

Allotransplantation has inherent shortcomings, and for many patients, will never be sufficient to address the clinical needs of a vast number of diseases or conditions.

 

There is an urgent need for a reliable, ethical source, and recent advances in gene-editing capabilities combined with an expanded understanding of the genome have renewed the viability of an alternative.

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Clinical xenotransplantation has the potential to address this unmet need on a large scale.