(Scanned from the Applicant's Description): Improvements in clinical management of immune rejection following organ transplantation have resulted in a steadily increasing demand for donor organs. Unfortunately, efforts to increase the supply of human organs available for transplantation have failed to keep pace with demand and appear unlikely to do so. Considerable research and development efforts have been devoted toward the use of animal organs, specifically those from pigs, as an innovative alternative to human organs. However, a number of xenotransplantation barriers need to be overcome prior to clinical use of pig organs. Genetic engineering of donor pigs, including generation of pigs with gene targeted modifications, will be necessary to overcome these barriers. A Phase II program is proposed to modify pigs for use in xenotransplantation, using homologous recombination to create both genetic knock-outs and knock-ins. Nuclear transfer technology, using donor fibroblast lines carrying the desired genetic modifications, will be used to generate the desired founder animals.

Proposed Commercial Applications

NOT AVAILABLE

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)
Type
Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR) - Phase II (R44)
Project #
2R44RR015198-02
Application #
6292787
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-ENR (01))
Program Officer
Grieder, Franziska B
Project Start
2000-03-01
Project End
2003-02-28
Budget Start
2001-03-20
Budget End
2002-02-28
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$422,464
Indirect Cost
Name
Biotransplant, Inc.
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02129
Prather, R S; Hawley, R J; Carter, D B et al. (2003) Transgenic swine for biomedicine and agriculture. Theriogenology 59:115-23
Lai, Liangxue; Prather, Randall S (2002) Progress in producing knockout models for xenotransplantation by nuclear transfer. Ann Med 34:501-6
Lai, Liangxue; Kolber-Simonds, Donna; Park, Kwang-Wook et al. (2002) Production of alpha-1,3-galactosyltransferase knockout pigs by nuclear transfer cloning. Science 295:1089-92