We are overwhelmed by the encouraging response the launching issue of BioNE received from the readers and it’s our immense pleasure to bring out the 2nd issue of the e-zine with a rejuvenated new look.
Keeping pace with the other science disciplines, biological sciences per se are also evolving rapidly. One of the latest scientific discoveries reported by the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in United States has attracted the attention of the scientific community substantially, as it has the potential to revolutionize the area of organ transplantation. Hopefully in the near future, transplantable organs for human use would be produced in animals. As per the study published recently in “Cell”, one of the most prestigious and highly rated peer-reviewed scientific journals, a group of scientists in the Gene Expression Laboratory of Salk Institute of Biological Studies, San Diego, California for the first time could successfully generate a chimeric pig embryo, which contains a human liver. Adult human stem cells induced to differentiate into liver were implanted into pig embryos and consequently the scientists succeeded to grow a human liver in the pig embryo for four weeks. However, because of ethical issues, the chimeric embryo was willingly destroyed thereafter. Even though the experiment is still in a very early stage and has a long way to go in terms of its wide applicability in clinical cases, it has got tremendous potential to change the grim scenario of organ transplantation worldwide.
Both at the global and the national levels, there is a huge gap in demand and availability of transplantable human organs (kidney, liver and heart are the three most common organs being transplanted worldwide) and at present human cadavers, brain dead patients and live donors are the sources of transplantable organs. According to a study published by US Department of Health, in US alone, 22 persons in each day die waiting for an organ and the global scenario including that of India is also of great dismay. Hence the latest technology, in spite of being nascent at the present time, is very exciting and has great potential to bring in a better future for the mankind.
