this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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Futurology
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Yes we should. Next question
I mean, that was my kneejerk reaction too. There's more than just animal welfare at stake, though. Putting human organs in a critter has the potential to act like a bridge if we're not careful, and essentially spawn new covids.
I’m assuming there would be a lot of figuring out how to “wash” these organs before transfer. The growing being the first part of the problem, second part being sterilization and making sure no graft vs host. Can’t really wash these organs with tons of antibacterial or antivirals so it might be a really unique solution
Antivirals only prevent replication, too. Virus capsids don't respire and have to be physically destroyed to neutralise them. Which is hard when you're trying to keep the delicate organ around them alive. Maybe you could use magical nanobots, but then why do you need an animal organ anyway?
The actual research is more centered around stopping it from happening in the first place, and then screening for any contamination. The critters might be raised in completely sterile conditions, and have already been genetically modified to remove any included ancient viral sequences in published work. Of course, all the producers have to actually follow the regimen everywhere in the world...
Thats exact a problem. I personally think the solution could be a mixture of organoids and using this methode to create new organs. Since we are already able to cultived organoids. The problem is that his tissue doesn't grow in the form of "natural" organs and do not make connections with the blood and nerv systems.