Cell fate regulation during gastrulation in humans and pigs

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Below is a list of the major stakeholders benefiting from this research:

Biomedical Research (Stakeholders: Academic and Industrial R&D): Developing improved methodologies for the generation of specific cell types from human embryonic stem cells will greatly improve the translational applications of these technologies in human regenerative medicine. Great demand exists for improving such technologies in the face of the potential solutions they may offer for treating degenerating diseases of ageing populations. Current limitations of these technologies are the low proportion of adult mature cell types produced in vitro. Our research will generate new understanding of how cells differentiate in vivo which will inform more robust differentiation approaches for obtaining desired functional cell types suitable for transplantation, for toxicological screening and disease modelling.

Human lifelong health and wellbeing (stakeholders: individuals/society): The increasing demand for organs in the UK (rising at 4% a year) indicates that there is critical need for alternative sources of organs for transplantation. Using genetic modification, pigs could be engineered to carry humanized organs, which may be suitable sources of organs for xenotransplantation. Pigs and human share many physiological and anatomical features. Pig hearts and kidneys have a similar size to a human equivalents. Pig corneas and pancreas can be made human compatible by genetic engineering. In addition, the technology developed here will also enable the generation of whole human organs in pigs, by using a combination of gene ablation plus embryo complementation with human cells to generate pig/human interspecies chimeras. These new technologies will bring the possibility of generating safe organs for transplantation to humans a step closer.

Ethics/policy making (Stakeholders: government/society): The new knowledge generated in this research will underpin a pathway to the development on novel medical approaches, which will have transformative impact in regenerative medicine and cell therapy. The possibility of generating human organs in interspecies chimeras raises ethical concerns. Therefore a thorough benefit/risk analysis needs to be carried out to determine the value of these new technologies. The societal benefits of developing alternative sources of organs need to outweigh the ethical concerns raised to have the desired impact in solving pressing medical problems, such as the lack of sufficient organs for transplantation and our increased needs for replacement organs to increase life expectancy. Policy makers and government agencies will benefit from these new findings and will use them to inform their decisions on the regulation of these new technological developments.