Dr. Dustin Becker
Dr. Dustin Becker
Staff of Onder, Christopher (Tit.-Prof.)
Member of the Wyss Zurich
Short description of my research project:
The human liver has the ability to regenerate. Liver resection (surgical removal of the diseased part of the liver) for the treatment of liver cancer has been carried out for a few decades, but many tumors are inoperable, notably because the removal of a too large piece of liver is fatal. In this project, an ex vivo liver perfusion machine will be developed, which will provide necessary nutrients and oxygen supply, and be equipped to monitor growth, as well as assess the functional capacity of the liver outside of the body. This will enable novel therapeutic strategies for liver regeneration consisting of: i) surgical resection of a small healthy piece of the liver from the patient; ii) growth of this piece outside of the body in a perfusion machine until a sufficient size is reached; iii) retransplantation of the regenerated liver to the original patient while removing the remaining diseased part.