Aug 2026· Xenotransplantation· Vol 33· 0 citations· 65 references
Medicine
Abstract
Xenotransplantation utilizing pig donors offers a promising solution to organ shortages, but immune incompatibilities across species remain a major challenge. Current reliance on porcine primary fibroblasts for genome editing is limited by low inefficiency in complex gene editing and difficulties in immunophenotyping edited cells. In this study, we demonstrate that porcine expanded potential stem cells (pEPSCs), derived from preimplantation embryos, provide a robust and versatile platform for generating donor cells for xenotransplantation. These pluripotent cells can differentiate into both embryonic and extraembryonic lineages, maintain genetic stability through multiple edits, and enable precise genome modifications. We performed multiple gene knockouts in pEPSCs targeting key immune rejection genes and precisely inserted a genetic cassette to facilitate streamlined introduction of human cDNAs via cassette exchange. The engineered pEPSCs retained their pluripotency and stability even after multiple rounds of genome editing. When differentiated into endothelial cells, they exhibited high immunogenicity, serving as a rapid and quantitative platform for immune response assessment. Importantly, the edited endothelial cells exhibited substantially reduced immunogenicity, confirming the functional impact of the genetic modifications. Although we have not yet generated live pigs from these gene‐edited pEPSCs via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), our findings establish pEPSCs as a novel and improved platform for generating genetically engineered pig donors and for functionally evaluating genetic modifications, thereby advancing the prospects of xenotransplantation.
It is concluded that bridging the gap between foundational CRISPR research and its real-world applications is imperative and future efforts should focus on democratizing tools via open-source platforms, advancing delivery systems, and fostering sustainable innovation through synthetic biology integration to fully realize the transformative potential of genome editing in organisms beyond model organisms.
S. Sarsaiya, Archana Jain, Jishuang Chen et al.· Biotechnology Advances· 2 citations
It is argued that formation of a tumour-intrinsic niche is a prerequisite for BRAF-mutant CRC seeding to distant organs and that interference with niche formation may help avoid metastatic relapse.
J. Bugter, L. El Bouazzaoui, E. Küçükköse et al.· bioRxiv· 2 citations
This review summarizes emerging therapeutic strategies for EOC, their mechanisms of action, and their potential to overcome treatment resistance, and covers molecularly targeted therapies, immunotherapies, metabolic and epigenetic approaches, cellular and gene therapies, targeted drug-delivery systems, and locoregional and physical modalities.
Zofia Pietrasik, Mikołaj Kapała, Joanna Pietrasik et al.· Cancers· 0 citations
Genetic engineering (GE) and gene editing may endow traits to trees such as increased biomass and the production of novel biomaterials. Long-lived organisms such as trees might be subject to biotechnology-related risks that could be different than those of annual row crops. Those risks could be relevant to production in engineered plantations and beyond plantations to natural forests. Therefore, appropriate risk regulation is important to assure biosafety of commercialized engineered trees. In addition to gene flow via sexual reproduction, vegetative reproduction might play an additional role in environmental "exposure" risk relative to transgene dispersal in GE tree plantations. While vegetative reproduction is beneficial for preserving desired genetic traits during tree propagation, it may lead to proximal clonal spread in the field. Although the environmental risks associated with vegetative reproduction of GE trees are recognized in commercial forestry, there are few field-based environmental risk assessment (ERA) studies on dispersal risks of self-propagated GE trees. GE or gene editing of target genes involved in the vegetative propagation processes may be useful to mitigate environmental risks of clonal spread through vegetative reproduction. This review provides updates for recent field test results of GE and gene edited trees. Gene candidates related to vegetative reproduction including adventitious shooting (AS) and adventitious rooting (AR) are discussed herein as a means to mitigate unintended clonal spread from GE tree plantations.
Findings establish Cas7-11 as a precise and efficient RNA knockdown tool for functional studies in embryonic development and stem cell biology, providing a versatile alternative to DNA-based gene-editing approaches.
Huan Yan, Imtiaz Ul Hassan, Kai Yan et al.· Cell & Bioscience· 0 citations
A new method for surgically removing training examples from a model reveals that as datasets grow, the link between what a model learns and what it produces dissolves.
MIT News · Artificial Intelligence· news.mit.eduAug 17, 2026