November 2, 2023: The field of xenotransplants is picking up, an incredible cold-water coral garden discovered and a layer of molten rock encloses Mars's core. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | This week, the recipient of a transplanted genetically modified pig heart died after surviving with the organ for nearly six weeks. His medical team reported that Lawrence Faucette showed signs of organ rejection. Pig xenotransplants have been tested in both nonhuman primates and deceased humans—but the ultimate goal is to conduct human clinical trials on a bigger scale. The results of recent compassionate use transplants (like Faucette's) will likely influence the FDA's consideration of whether and when to allow xenotransplant trials to take place.
Why this matters: More than 100,000 people in the U.S. are currently on waiting lists for an organ transplant. Every day 17 people die waiting for a transplant. The procurement system uses only a small fraction of the available organs at any particular time because of logistical and medical hurdles and a controversial distribution system.
| | | Surgeon Robert Montgomery carries a live kidney from a donor's operating room to the recipient's (left) after inspecting the organ (right). Credit: Kholood Eid | | | Researchers have discovered two pristine cold-water coral reefs in the Galápagos, both more than 400 meters below the water's surface. The team used a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and lasers to map the reefs in high resolution. One of the reefs is the size of eight football fields. These abyssal reefs, which may be thousands of years old, are teeming with sharks, squid and a variety of other creatures. They are situated about 1,000 kilometers west of Ecuador in the Galápagos Marine Reserve, where an intersection of three major ocean currents creates a concentration of nutrients that supports one of the most biodiverse marine habitats on the planet.
Why this is so cool: Unlike corals in warm waters that rely on photosynthetic algae for energy, the polyps of these corals catch tiny organisms floating in the water. This allows them to build lush coral gardens in the dark. As the team mapped the reefs, they identified more than 40 different varieties of cold-water corals, some of which were covered with eggs, and all crawling with other organisms, from lobsters and brittle stars, to dense patches of anemones and sponges.
What the experts say: The laser mapping technique could be used to measure coral growth in the future. "Cold-water corals grow very slowly, like a few millimeters a year over hundreds of years," says Katleen Robert, a researcher at the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland. "If you want to see the corals grow, you really have to be able to have that really high resolution that our laser scanner is able to provide." | | | This strawberry squid was documented by ROV SuBastian, Galápagos Marine Reserve. Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC-SA) | | | • President Joe Biden signed an executive order this week that urges new federal standards for AI safety, security and trustworthiness. It also addresses many other facets of AI risk and development. | 7 min read | | | • A pillar of every neuroscience textbook for 90 years, the classic "homunculus" concept is a metaphor of a "little man" in the brain who controls movement--essentially a map overlaid on a drawing of the cerebral cortex, indicating which brain regions control which motor functions. But new findings by Nico U.F. Dosenbach, associate professor of pediatric neurology at Washington University School of Medicine, and colleagues show this neural representation is far more complex than thought, with the representation of the body region sliced into three sections, one for the feet, another for the hands and a third for the mouth. | 8 min read | | | For November's feature article on xenotransplants, photographer Kholood Eid ventured into the surgery suite with Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute. The strong lights and shadows of the operating room gave Eid many compositional elements to work with, she told me. "At one point I put my camera down and stared into this stranger's body," Eid says. "Not a lot of people get to actually see the body in that way, the inside of a body, and to be humbled by that extraordinary act and even the extraordinary nature that is the human body. It's really something to behold." | | | It's incredible how photography can bring to life even the most sterile or dark environments, whether it be an operating room or deep-sea coral reef. Check out these recent features for some of my favorite examples of how excellent photography enhances a story: This Amazonian Indigenous Group Has Lessons in Sustainable Living for All of Us (May, 2022) | Do you recall a memorable piece of photojournalism that has stuck with you throughout the years? Let me know, and send any other feedback to newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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