Bioengineered pig lungs successfully transplanted

[MillCreek]

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/scientists-transplant-lab-grown-bioengineered-lungs-pigs

This is kind of exciting, and a bonus that the pigs don't have to use anti-rejection drugs.  Much more work to be done, however.

[zxcvbob]

Laboratory-grown haggis?  What will they think of next!     (real haggis has lungs, or "lights" in it)

Seriously, this might mean an eventual [but expensive] cure for lung cancer -- in humans.

[TommyGunn]

We can rebuild him.  We have the technology. We can make him better, stronger, faster, oinkier. 

[Firethorn]

Laboratory-grown haggis?  What will they think of next!     (real haggis has lungs, or "lights" in it)

Seriously, this might mean an eventual [but expensive] cure for lung cancer -- in humans.

More than just lung cancer, I'd imagine.  Anytime we can keep somebody with a lung problem alive long enough, we'd be able to grow a transplant for them.

[Hawkmoon]

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/scientists-transplant-lab-grown-bioengineered-lungs-pigs

This is kind of exciting, and a bonus that the pigs don't have to use anti-rejection drugs.  Much more work to be done, however.

Such as actually making the new lung function like a lung? And last more than two months?

Yes, I'd say a bit of work remains to be done.

[just Warren]

In a dystopia they'd just suture a pig to your chest and connect his lung-plumbing to yours.

[RoadKingLarry]

Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
Of course, using pigs is racist because muslims can't use it.
 

[just Warren]

First, do no haram.

[dogmush]

Such as actually making the new lung function like a lung? And last more than two months?

Yes, I'd say a bit of work remains to be done.

From article:

After surgery, Nichols’ team allowed one pig to survive for 10 hours, another for two weeks, a third for a month and the fourth for two months.

Sounds like the pig was living just fine, and they killed it to see how the lung was being accepted.

They do need to hook up the arteries though.  Actually get some O₂ through the lung.  Still, all in all pretty cool.

[Andiron]

Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
Of course, using pigs is racist because muslims can't use it.
 

Hell,  I like it already.

[Hawkmoon]

From article:

After surgery, Nichols’ team allowed one pig to survive for 10 hours, another for two weeks, a third for a month and the fourth for two months.

Sounds like the pig was living just fine, and they killed it to see how the lung was being accepted.

They do need to hook up the arteries though.  Actually get some O₂ through the lung.  Still, all in all pretty cool.

John Wayne lived for years with one lung. Having a pig live for 10 days, 10 weeks, or ten months with a cloned lung inside it that's not doing anything doesn't (IMHO) prove much of anything other than that a pig can live with one lung. Until the cloned lung actually functions as a lung, this is only a mildly interesting experiment.

[Firethorn]

They do need to hook up the arteries though.  Actually get some O₂ through the lung.  Still, all in all pretty cool.

Reading the article, that's next on their to-do list.  Looking at what they mentioned for previous tests, I can see why they didn't hook the pulminaries up, because previous tests had failed to implant and survive, much less work.  So why do the longer, more expensive and dangerous surgery to hook them up when, by the sounds of it, it succeeding this well was shocking to the researchers involved?

So now they've shown that they can have the organ survive in the body for a significant period.  Next step, test usability.

Having a pig live for 10 days, 10 weeks, or ten months with a cloned lung inside it that's not doing anything doesn't (IMHO) prove much of anything other than that a pig can live with one lung.

Your opinion isn't very humble, or very accurate.  Previous tests had failed catastrophically, killing the subjects.  That the subject didn't die, that the grown lung still looked like a lung, and otherwise didn't die and turn into a huge infection, as well as still having the various structures to exchange O2 if the appropriate blood vessels were hooked up was all new.

Hell, that the messed up lung didn't mess up the other lung is also good to know.