Commentary: Draining the cGAS from Immunity, advancing heart transplant surgery through a translational science approach.

Achieving prolonged donor heart preservation and considerable reductions in primary graft dysfunction will require a multi-pronged approach against a number of key processes. This goal is unlikely to be achieved by intervening on a single pathway or target molecule. Wu et al shows that the cGAS-STING pathway is an important piece of the puzzle in the relentless march toward organ banking. Further work is needed to demonstrate its relevance in human hearts and large animal studies are needed to satisfy the regulatory rigors for reaching clinical translation.