Revolutionizing Liver Transplants
For many, the wait for a liver transplant can feel interminable.
Last year, over 11,000 liver transplants took place in the United States, yet countless patients still found themselves in a frustrating limbo. Some were even removed from the waiting list as their health worsened, and it’s tragic to note that around 2,000 people died while waiting.
A biotechnology company based in the UK is now trying to change that narrative.
Ocher Bio is exploring potential treatments for chronic liver disease using donated human livers that aren’t viable for transplantation. Their facility in New York is equipped with advanced technology that maintains these livers on life support.
“We have engineers and scientists on board,” said Dr. Quin Wills, Ocher’s co-founder and CEO. “Surgeons are keeping these livers alive so we can figure out how to repair and regenerate them.”
Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, often overshadowed by heart disease and cancer, are responsible for about 50,000 deaths annually in the U.S., frequently due to factors like alcohol abuse and fat accumulation in the liver, which leads to cellular damage and scarring known as fibrosis.
Liver transplantation is the only definitive treatment for end-stage liver disease, but the graft supply is limited. Strangely enough, some donated livers end up discarded. “Sometimes, they just can’t match a liver with a donor in time,” Wills explained. “In such cases, if the donor consents to research use, we can harvest the liver for study.”
Founded in 2019, Ocher has research operations across the UK, Taiwan, and New York. The initial processes start in Oxford, where they focus on human cells to create organ building blocks.
Wills emphasized the importance of human cells in the UK branch, adding that their Taiwan facility forms a clinical network allowing for surgeries across multiple hospitals. With patients’ consent, small liver biopsies are taken, which can then produce about 50 micro-livers for lab research.
The company’s research, in collaboration with the German pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim, looks at several strategies: preventing liver cell death, enhancing scarring, and inspiring liver regeneration within the body.
When they think they have a viable drug candidate, testing moves to the lab in New York City. Recently, they transitioned from a startup space to a larger facility at the Alexandria Life Sciences Center.
Ocher can simultaneously keep several livers alive, usually for up to five days, followed by an additional five days for cultured tissue assessment.
“New York is, in a way, a cornerstone for clinical trials before they even begin,” Wills remarked.
The strategies designed to prevent cell death in early fibrosis are what Wills finds most promising. The destruction of liver cells leads to inflammation and chronic liver disease.
Wills is hopeful about starting clinical trials within the next couple of years, with the New York lab playing a crucial role in that plan.
“This is a significant milestone,” Wills stated. “There’s no other facility quite like this for direct study. We’ve experimented with human organs in clinical trials, reimagining them and learning how to manage them within machines before applying any procedures to human patients.”
