I anticipate that one exciting breakthrough in biomedicine will be the ability to produce unlimited supplies of transplantable human organs without the need for human donors. This would be done by growing human organs in the bodies of animals; let鈥檚 suppose it鈥檚 pigs.
When a patient needs a new organ 鈥� a kidney, say 鈥� the surgeon will contact a commercial organ producer and supply them with the patient鈥檚 immunological profile. The producer will already stock a number of pigs carrying kidneys of the right tissue type. These donor organs would be entirely composed of human cells, not just 鈥渉umanised鈥� animal cells. They will be grown by introducing appropriate human cells into animal hosts, and allowing them to develop into an organ in place of the animal鈥檚 own. Although I use pigs as an example, it remains to be seen which species will be best suited as a surrogate incubator of human organs. It is possible that for the best outcome, different species will be used for growing different organs.
One organ that is probably off limits, though, is the brain. Very few people would want to have their brain replaced by someone else鈥檚, and we probably don鈥檛 want to put a human brain in an animal body.
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