The Next Frontier for mRNA Could Be Healing Damaged Organs
A healthy liver is spongy and reddish-brown in color with a smooth appearance. But when the surgeons took this one out of the cooler, it was hard, marbled, and covered …
organ transplants
The First Person to Receive a Pig Kidney Transplant Has Died
Richard “Rick” Slayman, the first person to receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig, has died almost two months after the transplant. He was 62. The historic procedure was …
Doctors Combined a Heart Pump and Pig Kidney Transplant in Breakthrough Surgery
The kidney used in the latest NYU transplant was procured from a pig with a single genetic edit—the removal of a gene that produces a sugar known as alpha gal. …
He Got a Pig Kidney Transplant. Now Doctors Need to Keep It Working
Other than rejection of the organ, one of the most common transplant complications is infection. Doctors have to strike a balance when prescribing immunosuppressive drugs: too low a dose can …
This Bag of Cells Could Grow New Livers Inside of People
In early experiments, Lagasse found that if he injected healthy liver cells into the lymph nodes of mice, the cells would flourish and form a second, smaller liver to take …
A Gene-Edited Pig Kidney Was Just Transplanted Into a Person for the First Time
Slayman received his first kidney transplant in 2018 from a human donor. The donor kidney initially functioned well, but Slayman started to go into kidney failure after years of living …
A Gene-Edited Pig Liver Was Attached to a Person—and Worked for 3 Days
That has led researchers to genetically alter pigs in an attempt to make their organs a better match. The biotech company that bred the pig for the Penn study, eGenesis …
The Second Person to Get a Pig Heart Transplant Just Died
Lawrence Faucette, the 58-year-old patient with terminal heart disease who was the second person to receive a genetically engineered pig heart, died on October 30, according to a statement from …
A Monkey Got a New Kidney From a Pig—and Lived for 2 Years
Monkeys are often used in research as stand-ins for people because of their biological similarities. But Curtis anticipates that transplant outcomes for people will be even better, since the organs …