March 20, 2026

Scientists engineer lab-grown donor pig oesophagus and implant it into recipient pigs

Scientists from Great Ormond Street Hospital and UCL have created the first lab-grown oesophagus and have implanted it in pigs, which have been able to use it to swallow.

In their study the scientists have demonstrated that a pig donor oesophagus can be de-cellularised, repopulated with a recipient’s pig’s own cells, and implanted in the recipient pig to restore oesophageal function without the need for immunosuppression.

The study will be published in Nature Biotechnology.

Although this research is in animals the scientists hope it will provide useful data that might one day be a step towards helping children born with a condition called oesophageal atresia (OA) and long-gap oesophageal atresia (LGEA) – about 180 babies are born with OA in the UK each year, and 10% of those have LGEA.

Speakers will include:

Prof Paolo De Coppi, NIHR and Nuffield Professor of Paediatric Surgery at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH), Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at GOSH, and lead of the research team

Dr Marco Pellegrini, Senior Researcher at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH), and co-lead of the study