Fast Company January 20, 2022
A new study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham shows how pig organs could soon be used routinely for life-saving transplants in humans.
In a new study, researchers and surgeons at the University of Alabama Birmingham were able to successfully transplant a genetically modified pig kidney into the body of a brain-dead human. The surgery adds to a growing body of evidence that xenotransplantation—transplants of live organs, tissues, or cells to humans from nonhuman species—can work. Their use for patients who need kidneys may be closer than previously thought—as soon as five years from now.
(Early this month, the University of Maryland transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a living 57-year-old man. So far, his body has not...