WASHINGTON — People who volunteer to donate a kidney face an even lower risk of death from the operation than doctors have long thought, researchers reported Wednesday. The study tracked 30 years of living kidney donation and found that by 2022, fewer than 1 of every 10,000 donors died within three months of the surgery. … Read more
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 in bumps—evidence of cirrhosis, a type of end-stage liver disease. Over time, the man’s healthy liver cells had been replaced by scar tissue, and eventually, … Read more
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Some people who develop a weird and terrifying allergy to red meat after a bite from a lone star tick can still eat pork from a surprising source: Genetically modified pigs created for organ transplant research. Don’t look for it in grocery stores. The company that bred these special pigs shares its … Read more
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Wide-eyed piglets rushing to check out the visitors to their unusual barn just might represent the future of organ transplantation – and there’s no rolling around in the mud here. The first gene-edited pig organs ever transplanted into people came from animals born on this special research farm in the Blue Ridge … Read more
WASHINGTON — A woman who received a pig kidney transplant — along with an implanted device to keep her heart beating – has died, her surgeon announced Tuesday. Lisa Pisano was near death from kidney and heart failure when surgeons at NYU Langone Health performed the dramatic pair of surgeries in April. The New Jersey … Read more
WASHINGTON — A woman who received a pig kidney transplant is back on dialysis because surgeons had to remove the gradually failing organ after just 47 days. Lisa Pisano was the second person to receive a kidney from a gene-edited pig, and NYU Langone Health announced that she is stable after an operation to remove … Read more
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 carried out on March 16 at Massachusetts General Hospital. In a statement released on May 11, the hospital said it had “no indication” that Slayman’s … Read more
MBALE, Uganda — Barbara Nabulo was one of three girls in her family. But when a sister died, her mother wailed at the funeral that she was left with just one and a half daughters. The half was the ailing Nabulo, who at age 12 grasped her mother’s meaning. “I hated myself so much,” Nabulo … Read more
BOSTON — The first recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died nearly two months after he underwent the procedure, his family and the hospital that performed the surgery said Saturday. Richard “Rick” Slayman had the transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital in March at the age of 62. Surgeons said they believed the … Read more
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. This sugar appears on the surface of pig cells and seems to be responsible for rapid rejection in humans. The pig was engineered by Revivicor, … Read more
