Share with friends and circle of friends with wechat scanning code QR code < / P > < p > < p > reprint Boston global. Stat + < / P > < p > in the past few months, a series of "firsts" in the field of xenotransplantation have inspired people's new hope, that is, to replace human organs with genetically edited pig organs, Solving the problem of severe global organ shortage -- a new era in the field of transplantation is coming < p > different from several American xenotransplantation companies currently starting clinical trials, a Chinese biotechnology company, qihan biology, is turning to a new field of cell therapy. One of its founders, Dr. Yang Luhan, one of the heavyweight pioneers in the field of gene editing, has made up for many important shortcomings in xenotransplantation with her painstaking research. She took the lead in using CRISPR gene editing technology to create a gene editing pig that can be transplanted into the human body < p > xenotransplantation has a long history. In the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies have invested more than US $2 billion in research funds to genetically modify pigs to produce human compatible and replaceable pig organs. But these efforts have failed for two reasons: rejection and the possible spread of the pig virus to people. CRISPR gene editing is expected to solve these two problems. In 2013, as the main participant and author of a CRISPR study, Dr. Yang Luhan proved that CRISPR technology can be used to edit human cell genes. Two years later, Dr. Yang and her Harvard mentor Professor George church jointly founded the American company egenesis, which has become a new force in American xenotransplantation. In 2017, the first gene editing pig was born in egenesis. As the chief scientific officer of egenesis, her team has completed editing pig cells with CRISPR technology and completely removed the endogenous retrovirus of pigs that can be transmitted to humans < p > in the same year, Yang Luhan returned to China and founded Hangzhou qihan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in Hangzhou. In 2019, the team of qihan and egenesis jointly created gene editing pig 3.0. Scientists combined crispr-cas9 and transposon technology to cultivate a special pig, eradicated porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV), and had 13 independent gene modifications. Qihan modified the incompatibility of immunity and coagulation between pigs and humans. At the same time, the genetically engineered pigs and their organs have normal physiological characteristics, fertility and the ability of transgenic transmission to the next generation. The birth of pig "3.0" marks an important step in the safety and effectiveness of xenotransplantation. At the same time, this achievement also proves that qihan biology uses its high-throughput gene editing technology platform to endow cells with new functions, which makes it have great potential in the application of tumor immune cell therapy and regenerative medicine < p > Dr. Yang said: "cell therapy is our focus in the near future, and xenotransplantation is still our long-term vision as always." When qihan biological seized the leading position of xenotransplantation, after the outbreak of African swine fever and sars-cov-2 in China, pig xenotransplantation fell into an unprecedented dilemma in China. Do you want to move on or off the track? Yang Luhan, who never gives up, led her team to turn to the field of cell therapy and continue to move towards her goal in another way. Cell therapy is allogeneic transplantation. The goal of qihan biology is to use CRISPR gene editing technology and deep expertise in transplantation rejection to produce a new generation of cells and organs that can avoid host immune attack, which can be applied to allogeneic and xenogeneic transplantation. Allogeneic research will still bring great help to the future xenotransplantation < p > in his email to stat, Dr. George church mentioned that "Luhan has great momentum. I wouldn't be surprised if one day her allogeneic research continues to promote the development of xenotransplantation." < p > Dan Kaufman, Professor of medicine and director of cell therapy in the Department of regenerative medicine at the University of California, San Diego, believes that a key point in the field of allogeneic cell therapy is to understand patients' immune responses and find ways to limit these responses, which may increase the persistence of cells and improve their efficacy. At the invitation of Yang Luhan, Dan Kaufman joined the Scientific Advisory Committee of qihan and served as the chairman of the cell therapy team of the bioscience advisory group of qihan < p > with the rapid progress in the field of allogeneic cell therapy, qihan biology did not stop the exploration of xenogeneic organ transplantation. The partner Professor Wei Hongjiang of Yunnan University successfully excluded African swine fever from the biosafety animal feeding facility in his laboratory. He still took photos of the pigs edited by qihan gene. Dr. Yang believes that qihan will be rejoined into the queue of xenotransplantation and bring hope to patients who need organ transplantation A scientific pioneer is on the sides of the race in xenotransplantation (statnews. Com)