Organ transplantation in the 21th century: An update on novel approaches, xenotransplantation, and ethics
On 29 November, Professor Kristina Nilsson Ekdahl will participate in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences seminar series to give a lecture on organ transplantation. She will discuss how the organ shortage has led to research on the use of animal organs, known as xenotransplantation – a development that raises both ethical and biological questions.
Organ transplantation is today a routine treatment for many diseases. In chronic kidney disease, transplantation is by far the best treatment that allows the patient to come off dialysis and lead a normal life. This successful development is due above all to modern immunosuppressive drugs that have been developed since the 1970s. In recent years, however, a certain stagnation in development has occurred and remaining limitations with the treatment are yet to be resolved. The need for organs is greater than the supply and many patients die each year waiting for a transplant. For this reason, much research and clinical development is underway with the goal of being able to use organs from other species, so-called xeno-transplantation. In the past couple of years, several high-profile heart and kidney transplants from pigs to humans have taken place, which raises many ethical questions in addition to the purely biological ones.
The seminar is open to the public and is held both on-site in room Lapis, building Vita in Kalmar, and via Zoom at this link.
