Grow new organs, or get them from animals?

We don’t have enough organs. Due to our ageing population and the rising burden of chronic diseases, the organs of living people are failing. Meanwhile, those of the recently dead continue to be in short supply, despite well-funded initiatives to increase donation. So what can we do? In a new feature for The Scientist, I explore two very different solutions to the organ shortage: transplanting them from animals, and growing them afresh. Both approaches have been chugging along for many years, and proponents of both think that they’re on the cusp of something big. I go into a fair bit of detail about the history behind both routes, where they are now, and where they might reasonably get to in the future. This isn’t an easy piece to structure – it’s almost like two mini-features. But I was struck at how people who work on both approaches were drawn into ...