Dusko Ilic

A team in the UK has developed the first laboratory-grown oesophagus in pigs that has been shown to safely replace an entire section of the organ and restore normal function, including swallowing, in a growing animal without the need for immunosuppression. The procedure, successfully carried out on eight pigs, involves removing cells from a donor organ, repopulating it with the recipient’s own cells and then implanting it. If this technology is adapted for use in humans, it could help in the treatment of newborns or children born with oesophageal atresia, a serious congenital malformation in which the oesophagus does not develop properly. The results are published in Nature Biotechnology.

A study published in the journal Frontiers in Aging claims to have developed an epigenetic tool to estimate the risk of death from cells in the mouth.

A study published today in Nature Genetics examines AstraZeneca's new tool, MILTON, which uses artificial intelligence to detect biomarkers and predict diseases before they are diagnosed. According to this analysis, the tool could potentially predict over a thousand diseases and may even be more effective than the currently available polygenic risk scores.