In vivo Organ Generation by Stem Cells

Organ transplantation is a very effective life-saving treatment for end-stage organ diseases. Nevertheless, the number of organs available for transplantations is limited, and the waiting lists are ever increasing, recently counting around 150.000 people  Europe and 100.00 in USA, leading to a high rate of death for organ failure: only in the European continent, approximately 5.000 people die every year waiting for an organ, with a mortality rates for patients waiting for a heart, liver or lung ranging between 15 and 30%. The necessity to find additional source of organs for transplantation has boosted research on the generation of organs from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs).

We develop new therapeutic alternatives based on the generation of xeno-organs in vivo by blastocyst complementation using pluripotent stem cells. This strategy is based on the microinjection of stem cells into genetically modified embryos, incapable of generating a certain type of organ/cell type. In this way the target organ is formed exclusively from the microinjected stem cells. The group works with mouse and rat embryonic stem cells and human iPS cells, as well as with genetically modified mouse and pig models.