Xeno2Cure - advanced engineering and testing of organ donor pigs - SNSF Funding, 48 months, starting from 01.04.2021 in Bern, Geneva and Munich. Total approved budget CHF 2'656'900.00

The overall aim of this project is to generate pigs with multiple genetic modifications available for testing in experimental pig-to-baboon and later on in clinical pig-to-human xenotransplantation. In order to achieve this, we re-design genetically modified donor pigs ‘from scratch’ and assess the functional consequences of the combined genetic modifications on a cellular level in vitro before pigs are produced from these modified cells. Pigs will then be bred based on the genetic modifications which were proven in vitro to have the best functional phenotype. Finally, ex vivo perfusion studies of limbs of these animals with human blood will be performed to further assess the suitability of the respective genetic modifications in potential xenograft organ donor pigs.

The three teams, respestively the three PIs, Robert Rieben at University of Bern, Jörg Seebach at Geneva University Hospital and Eckhard Wolf at the LMU Munich, involved in this application have known each other and collaborated on different occasions for many years.