Feature
Luhan Yang strives to make pig organs safe for human transplants
Genome editing with CRISPR/Cas9 could circumvent organ rejection problems
Luhan Yang is “exceptionally bold, yet careful,” says George Church, who co-founded eGenesis with Yang.
eGenesis
Luhan Yang, 31
Biologist
eGenesis
Biologist Luhan Yang dreams of pig organs that will one day fly — into people. If she has her way, animal farms will raise herds of bioengineered pigs, designed to produce kidneys, livers and other organs that could be transplanted into humans. Animal parts would slip seamlessly into people, easing their suffering.
“There are millions of patients worldwide waiting for organ transplants,” says Yang, who is chief scientific officer of eGenesis, a biotech start-up in Cambridge, Mass. “It’s such a huge unmet need.”
Researchers have long dreamed of using animal organs to alleviate the shortage of human ones, a field called
