Israeli scientist aims to replace human organs like car parts - on demand

• Published date: 05 October 2021
• Author: MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

According to Dr. Shahar Cohen, such a scenario is likely less than a decade off.

"Wouldn't a 100-year-old person benefit from a new organ even if it is not failing?" Cohen, who runs Nayacure Labs, asked. "If organ transplantation was safer and more available, you could replace organs as part of a maintenance plan to prevent disease."

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It is just one idea of many that sound like science fiction but are quickly becoming reality through the work of doctors and scientists in the field of regenerative medicine.

As people are expected to live until 100 and beyond, there are efforts underway to make that viable without having to sacrifice too much quality of life, Cohen said.

"Living longer and healthier is something people are actually talking about," he told The Jerusalem Post. "Aging is being considered a disease that can be cured rather than something that is inevitable and normal."

There are several examples of these efforts, such as using CRISPR technology to modify the sequence of DNA to replace abnormal or bad parts of the DNA or insert good missing genes.

Other research focuses on connecting the human nervous system to machines; others focus on using big data and AI to generate insights toward the prevention and treatment of many diseases.

Cohen's bioengineering lab is working on a project it calls "organs on demand," which takes an engineering approach to tackle immune rejection that results from organ transplantation.

"Our goal is to generate an unlimited supply of human-compatible organs to address the global shortage of organs available for transplantation," he said.

To do so, Cohen and his team are using advanced tissue engineering techniques to replace the innermost layer of the donor blood vessels – in this case, a pig – with non-immunogenic human cells, paving the way to generate transplantable, fully functional organs.

The main trigger of organ rejection is the internal lining of its blood vessels, Cohen said. This coating is the point of contact between the transplanted organ and the recipient's body.

"We looked for a way to produce an alternative coating that does not cause rejection," he explained.

The solution: Cohen's team removed the coating from the pigs' blood vessels and replaced it with a more "friendly" coating to the human immune system that was engineered in the laboratory from human placenta...