New Organ's goal is to ensure no one dies from lack of a healthy organ. The New Organ Liver Prize is our first step toward that goal. 

Around the world, millions of people need replacement organs, and many die before finding a suitable donor. In the United States, the wait list has skyrocketed while the number of available organs has stayed relatively flat. Even those fortunate enough to find an organ in time face serious medical difficulties, often for the rest of their lives. 

The growing field of regenerative medicine offers many potential solutions, but it is drastically underfunded compared to more established areas of medicine. We're developing a challenge prize series to spur innovation in whole organ regeneration, engineering, and preservation and to help draw popular attention to this vital cause.

In order to put regenerative medicine and tissue engineering on the map as game-changing solutions to organ disease and the global organ shortage, we wanted to create a powerful focal point, and prizes are perfect for this. 

Well-executed challenge prizes have launched entire industries in the past, such as the Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927, which transformed U.S. aviation. Among other things, good prizes can attract new capital to seemingly intractable problems, motivate top minds and non-traditional players, galvanize public demand, force regulatory reform, encourage smart risk taking, and help transcend perceived constraints. 

Right now, the New Organ Liver Prize is worth $1 million. We are actively seeking partners to increase that amount.

Many, many people have been affected by organ disease and the organ shortage crisis, if not directly, then indirectly through the suffering of friends or family members. What's more, we believe that breakthroughs in whole organ tissue engineering will act as a catalyst for accelerating regenerative technologies as a whole, and regenerative medicine is going to make all of our lives dramatically better. This belief was a key motivator for us in designing the New Organ Liver Prize.

Our initial prize, the New Organ Liver Prize, is the first in a series of challenges and awards to incentivize tissue engineering solutions for all of the complex solid organs, including the heart, kidney, lungs, and pancreas. We're also currently exploring a prize focused on organ preservation with the Organ Preservation Alliance, a coalition incubated by Singularity University Labs.

Absolutely. The New Organ Liver Prize is open to qualified teams wishing to participate from anywhere in the world.

The Methuselah Foundation (New Organ's host charity) does not claim any rights on IP produced by the prize teams.

If you haven't already, sign up as an organ donor. New Organ exists to usher in broader, longer-term solutions to the organ crisis, but donor organ transplants still save tens of thousands of lives every year right now. Take a few minutes to register at donatelife.net. 

You can support New Organ directly by donating here, as well as sharing via social media.

The New Organ Liver Prize will be judged by a panel of five to seven independent, highly-qualified experts. We're in the process of forming the judging committee, which will be solely responsible for evaluating compliance with all prize guidelines and rules, and will have final authority in awarding the prize.