As internal organs go, the human liver has a rare superpower – the ability to regenerate itself. But it’s not invincible. A liver transplant remains the only treatment for people with diseased or damaged livers that are beyond self-repair. In 2021, over 9,000 Americans received liver transplants, but without enough donor supply, many were left on the waitlist.
To meet this clinical need, UW researchers are working to reveal in detail how human livers form, with the ultimate goal of growing new organs in the lab.
University of Washington bioengineer Kelly Stevens, whose research focuses on mapping human organs and engineering artificial human tissues, has received an Allen Distinguished Investigator Award to support her work to map and understand how human livers develop.
The $1.3 million, three-year grant from The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute, will allow the Stevens lab to explore the complex set of factors involved in liver formation. The project will build on the Stevens lab’s expertise in building organoids (3D clusters of organ tissue), synthetic biology and 3D bioprinting.
