Some 73% of organ transplant patients who received a third coronavirus vaccine developed antibodies compared to only 35% after the second vaccine, according to new research.

University of B.C. researchers have developed a new polymer coating that could potentially reduce the rejection rate of transplanted organs. The coating, developed by UBC medicine professor Dr. Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu’s team at the Centre for Blood Research and Life Sciences Institute, has been shown to drastically lower the rejection rate of transplants in mice.

A 39-year-old man with heart failure was the first in the U.S. to receive a new-generation artificial heart in a procedure that took place at Duke University Hospital. In June, Matthew Moore from Shallotte was referred to Duke with heart failure. He thought he would just have undergone a heart bypass surgery. Duke reported his condition was getting worse and a traditional heart transplant became too dangerous.

The new technique inserts genetic material without inadvertently causing damage elsewhere, so is less likely to bring unexpected problems. It was tested on mini-organs grown from the stem cells of patients with cystic fibrosis and compared to those grown from healthy cell lines.