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That's not at all the kind of alternative I have in mind and would be of essentially zero use in cases of organ transplant for people with genetic disorders. (E
by DoreenMichele 4y ago
That's not at all the kind of alternative I have in mind and would be of essentially zero use in cases of organ transplant for people with genetic disorders. (Edit: For example, cystic fibrosis accounted for a third of all adult lung transplants in the US and half of all pediatric lung transplants last I checked.)
- waterhouse 4y agoWould it really? If you're doing genetic engineering already and you know what the genetic disorder is, it seems like you could then engineer a version of your DNA without the disorder and grow an organ from that.
- DoreenMichele 4y agoIt would, by definition, at that point no longer be identical to your DNA. I have no idea if at that point you risk rejection, etc.
- pkaye 4y agoI think if the new DNA kept the DNA encoding for the HLA markers there wouldn't be any rejection risk. HLA markers allow the immune system to tell which cells belong to your own body. When they do transplants, they check for HLA compatibility much as possible.
- andrewflnr 4y agoIn my understanding, rejection is mostly due to things like cell surface proteins. It looks like cystic fibrosis is in fact a mutation in a surface protein, but at least it's only one. I'm guessing that's manageable...