First Human-Pig Chimera Is a Step Toward Custom Organs
Every day, 22 people in America die while waiting for an organ transplant. But when scientists can grow replacement livers or kidneys or pancreases inside of animal hosts, medicine\u2019s organ shortage may end. That\u2019s the hope anyway\u2014and this week there\u2019s more reason to hope than ever that it might become reality. The key to producing human organs in other animals is the chimera, a mixture of cells from more than one species growing together as a single animal.