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Hi everyone.

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I would like to introduce you to Laika.

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To most of us, Laika is simply[br]a very cute pig.

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However, to hundreds of thousands[br]of patients in need of a lifesaving organ,

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Laika is a symbol of hope.

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You see, ever since the 1970s,

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when organ transplants[br]became a real option

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for patients with kidney failure[br]and other organ diseases,

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organ supply has been an issue.

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Over the last few decades,

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the issue only worsened as organ demand[br]has exponentially increased.

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Currently in the US,

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there are close to 115,000 patients

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in need of a lifesaving organ transplant.

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By the end of my talk,

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one more patient[br]will be added to this list.

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Today, about 100 people[br]will get a new organ,

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a chance to start their life anew,

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and yet by the end of today,

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20 others will die waiting.

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The situation is heartbreaking

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for patients, for their families,

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and for the doctors who want to do more.

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In some parts of the world,

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the situation also becomes[br]a disturbing social issue.

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In Asia, for example,

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media outlets reported that[br]desperate patients

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are obtaining organs

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from the cruel black market.

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It is clear that a solution[br]is needed to this crisis.

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Human lives are at stake.

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As a biologist and a geneticist,

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it has become my mission[br]to help solve this problem.

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Today, I am optimistic to say[br]that we are on our way there,

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thanks to Laika.

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Using gene editing technology,

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it's now possible to exclusively create[br]a human transplantable organ

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that can be safely grown in pigs.

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Before we jump into the incredible[br]science that makes it happen,

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let's have a better understanding[br]what xenotransplantation is.

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It's a process of transplanting[br]animal organs into humans.

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You may want to ask, why pig organs?

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Because some pigs carry organs[br]with similar size and physiology

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to human organs.

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Over the last half a century,

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pioneers of transplantation[br]have tried hard to make it happen,

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but with limited to no success.

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Why is that?

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Two fundamental hurdles stood in the way.

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First is a problem of rejection.

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When our immune system[br]sees a new organ as foreign,

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it will reject it.

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Second, and this one is specific[br]to the organs from the pig,

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every pig carries a virus[br]that has been ?? to the pig,

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but can be transmitted into humans.

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It is called the porcine[br]endogenous retrovirus (PERV),

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and this virus has the potential[br]to cause a viral epidemic

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similar to HIV.

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Without an effective way[br]to address these issues,

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the field of xenotransplantation[br]has been on hold for more than one decade.

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Little progress has been made, until now.

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Let me share with you[br]how I got here today with Laika.

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My journey started from[br]?? Mountain in China.

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That is the place ?? described[br]in a lot of legendary stories,

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like the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

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That is the place I call home.

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Growing up in the mountain,

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I started to have a strong[br]connection with nature.

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This is me when I was seven years old

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standing in front of[br]an ancient Buddhist temple

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with a monkey on my shoulder.

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I still vividly remember[br]how my friends and I

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would toss the peanuts around[br]to distract the monkeys

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so that we could cross[br]to hike through the valley.

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I loved nature.

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When it was time[br]to choose a field of study,

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I chose to study biology[br]at Peking University in Beijing.

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However, the more I learned,

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the more questions I had.

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How could our genetic makeup[br]be so similar to animals,

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and yet we look so different?

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How is our immune system capable[br]of fighting off so many pathogens

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but smart enough not to attack ourselves.

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Questions like this tormented me.

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I know it sounds nerdy,[br]but you know I'm a scientist.

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After college, I decided[br]I didn't want to just ask the questions,

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I wanted to answer them, so I did.

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In 2008, I was lucky enough to be accepted[br]into the PhD program at Harvard University

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and worked with Dr. George Church.

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While working in Church's lab,[br]I started to learn and experiment with

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the genetic makeup of mammals.

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Among all the experiments,

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one particular one[br]took me closer to Laika.

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In 2013, my colleagues and I[br]made changes in a human cell

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using a tool you may have heard about

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called CRISPR.

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We were one of the first two groups

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to report the successful use[br]of such a tool in changing our DNA.

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It was an exciting moment[br]in scientific discovery.

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The gene-editing tool CRISPR[br]has two components.

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It has a scissor called the ??,

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and what is called a guide RNA.

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Think about it as a genetic scissors[br]with a microscope.

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The microscope is a guide RNA,

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which brings the scissors[br]to the place we want to cut

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and says, "Here it is,"

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and the ?? CRISPR just cuts[br]and repairs the DNA in the way we want.

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Shortly after we reported our study,

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physicians at Mass General Hospital[br]were intrigued by the medical applications

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of our research.

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They reached out to us,

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and together, we began to see[br]the potential to use CRISPR

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to solve the organ shortage crisis.

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How do we do it?

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It is simple, yet very complex.

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We started by making changes[br]in a pig's cell to make virus-free

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and human-immune-compatible.

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The nucleus of that cell[br]is then implanted into a pig egg

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and allowed to divide into an embryo.

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The resulting embryo is then placed[br]into the uterus of a surrogate mother

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and allowed to divide into a pig.

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Basically, it's a process of cloning.

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The piglet then carries organs[br]whose genetic makeup

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hopefully wouldn't be rejected[br]by the human immune system.

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In 2015, our team decided to tackle[br]the viral transmission problem first.

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We wanted to take out all 62 copies[br]of the PERV virus from the pig genome,

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but at the time, it was[br]nearly mission impossible.

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Even with CRISPR,

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we could only do one or two[br]modifications within a cell.

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The record for number of modifications[br]we can do in a particular cell was five.

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We had to increase the through-put[br]by more than tenfold to achieve that.

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With very careful design[br]and hundreds of trials,

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we successfully took out all the virus,

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broke the record.

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More importantly, our studies showed[br]that we could eliminate

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the possibility of this dangerous virus

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being transmitted into humans.

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Last year, with a modified cell[br]and cloning technology,

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our startup, eGenesis, produced Laika,

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the first pig of its kind[br]born without PERV.

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(Applause)

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Laika represents the first critical step[br]in establishing safe xenotransplantation.

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It is also a platform

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that we can do further[br]genetic modification on

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to solve the immunology problem.

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Since then, we have created[br]more than 30 pigs without PERV,

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and they may be the most advanced[br]geno-modified animal living on Earth.

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We named Laika after the Soviet dog

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who was the first animal[br]to orbit the Earth.

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We hope Laika and her siblings

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can lead us into a new frontier[br]of science and medicine.

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Imagine a world where patients[br]who suffer from liver failure

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can be saved with a new liver

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without having to wait for a donation

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or another human to die.

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Imagine a world[br]where people with diabetes

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do not have to rely[br]on insulin after every meal

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because we can provide them[br]with good pancreatic cells

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that can produce insulin on their own.

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And imagine a world[br]where patients with kidney failure

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do not have the face[br]the burden of dialysis.

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We are striving to create that world,

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a world without organ shortage.

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We finally have the tool[br]to tackle the problem

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we could never tackle before,

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and Laika is just[br]the beginning of our journey.

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We have to be very humble[br]in front of nature,

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because there are more issues[br]to be addressed,

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including immunology

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and things we couldn't even[br]anticipate at this point.

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However, it is our responsibility[br]to translate the cutting edge science

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into medicine to save the lives[br]of all the patients who are waiting.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)

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Chris Anderson: I mean, Luhan,[br]this is extraordinary work here.

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Come forward.

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So what's the next steps here?[br]You've got rid of the virus.

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The next steps involve[br]trying to get to the point

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where a human body[br]won't reject a transplant.

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What's involved in solving that?

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Luhan Yang: It's a very[br]complicated process.

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So we need to take out[br]the ?? of the pigs.

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In addition, we can learn[br]a lot from cancer.

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How can cancer invade[br]or circumvent our immune system

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so that we can utilize the trick of cancer

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and implement that on the pig organ

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to fool our immune system[br]to not attack the organ.

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CA: When would you estimate,[br]when do you hope,

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that the first successful[br]transplant would happen?

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LY: It would be irresponsible for me[br]to give you any number.

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CA: We're at TED.[br]We're always irresponsible.

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LY: But we are working day and night[br]trying to make this happen

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for the patients.

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CA: So not even, you won't say[br]that you think it could happen

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within a decade or within[br]five years or something?

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LY: For sure we hope it happens[br]within one decade.

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(Laughter)

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CA: So there's a lot of people here[br]who would be very, very excited at that,

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and the potential is extraordinary.

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There will be some other[br]people here who are going,

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"That pig is too cute.

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Humans shouldn't be exploiting[br]something so cute for our benefit."

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Do you have any response to that?

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LY: Yeah, sure.

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So imagine one pig can save[br]eight people's lives.

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In addition, similar to human donation,

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if we only harvest[br]one kidney from the pig,

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the pig can still be alive,

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so we are very mindful about the issues,

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but I think our goal is just to address[br]the unmet medical need

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for those patients and their families.

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CA: Plus, no one can say that to you[br]if they eat bacon, right?

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LY: That's a good point.

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(Laughter)

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CA: Luhan, thank you so much.[br]LY: Thank you so much.

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(Applause)