Breakthrough: lab-grown liver
Published: November 1, 2006
The breakthrough is being hailed as a vital first step towards creating a fully artificial liver that can be used for transplants within as little as ten years.
A team from Newcastle University grew a tiny liver, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, using stem cells from umbilical cords.
Dr Nico Forraz and Professor Colin McGuckin worked with scientists from NASA in Houston, Texas.
The miniature livers can now be used for drug and pharmaceutical testing, eradicating the need to test on animals and humans.
Professor McGuckin, who teaches regenerative medicine in the Department of Clinical and Laboratory Sciences, said the transplant of a section of liver could be possible within the next 10 to 15 years.
A full transplant using a liver grown in a laboratory is decades away, he said.
Professor McGuckin said the use of mini-livers could prevent another Northwick Park Hospital disaster, where six men almost died after taking an experimental drug.
“We take the stem cells from the umbilical cord blood and make small mini-livers,” he said.
“We then give them to pharmaceutical companies and they can use them to test new drugs on.
“It could prevent the situation that happened earlier this year when those six patients had a massive reaction to the drugs they were testing.”
An end to animal testing
Professor McGuckin said this development could also mean the end of animal testing.
“When a drug company is developing a new drug it first tests it on human cells and then tests it on animals before beginning trials on humans,” he said.
“Moving from testing on animals to humans is a massive leap and there is still a risk, as was shown earlier this year.
“But by using the mini-livers we have developed there is no need to test on animals or humans.”
Dr Forraz, a researcher at the university, and Professor McGuckin have now co-founded a company called ConoStem and have teamed up with the Tyneside-based Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (CELS) to look at marketing their work.
Their liver is already winning them plaudits after they scooped the science and technology award at the Blueprint: The North East Universities Business Planning Competition last week.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: