Zhifeng Long

TL;DR: Pig organs may offer a solution to the shortage of human donor organs for transplantation, but concerns remain about possible cross-species transmission of porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV), and persistent microchimerism was observed in 23 patients for up to 8.5 years.

TL;DR: It is shown that pig pancreatic islets produce PERV and can infect human cells in culture, the first evidence that PERV is transcriptionally active and infectious cross-species in vivo after transplantation of pig tissues.

TL;DR: Data collected from these original patients have provided novel information about the longevity of T lymphocytes in humans and persistence of gene expression in vivo from vectors driven by the Moloney murine leukemia virus long-terminal repeat (LTR) promoter.

TL;DR: Results indicate that gene-marked cells can engraft and persist for at least 3 months postinfusion, even without myeloablation, and modifications of vector systems and transduction conditions may be necessary to achieve beneficial levels of correction in patients with Gaucher disease.

TL;DR: A method for the real-time detection of a single-copy Herpes simplex thymidine kinase gene in a high background of genomic DNA that is equivalent to 500 000 diploid mammalian cells is described, which minimizes the potential for product carry-over contamination.