Mezrich, Joshua D. - Every Living Creature: How Xenotransplantation Will Change Our Lives

The incredible history and promise of inter-species organ transplantation, from an award-winning transplant surgeon. A FASCINATING EXPLORATION OF ANIMAL-TO-HUMAN TRANSPLANTATION THAT WILL APPEAL TO READERS OF CUTTING-EDGE MEDICAL NARRATIVES Tells the story of how mastery of gene editing started and how it has led to potential treatments of disease and longevity in ways we could have only imagined. Discusses the relationship between humans and animals and tackles the ethics of using animals to prolong human life. Authored by a transplant surgeon and director of the living-donor kidney program, Mezrich's first book was When Death Becomes Life. The shortage of organs will never be solved if someone must die for someone else to be saved. And yet a solution is well within reach—xenotransplantation, or the transplanting of organs between different species. The story begins with efforts using chimpanzees and baboons in the 60s through the 90s, rife with ethical and practical complications and disappointments. The successful cloning of Dolly the sheep revived xeno-optimism, followed by the discovery of CRISPR-Cas9, which finally opened the door to xenotransplantation in humans, using genetically modified pigs as organ donors. The protagonists of this story are as incredible as the science it details: a transgender visionary, the highest paid female CEO in the world, who simply wants her daughter to live; the surgeon saved by a high-risk heart transplant, who swears by the promise of pigs’ organs; the brilliant and brash surgeon-scientist-entrepreneur who is risking everything to make xenotransplantation a reality.