On a farm in the southern US state of Virginia, David Ayares and his research teams are breeding genetically modified pigs to transplant their organs into human patients.
Revivicor, the biotech company Ayares leads, is at the forefront of xenotransplantation research – the implantation of animal organs into humans – which aims to solve the country’s chronic organ shortage.
Revivicor bred a pig whose kidney was recently transplanted into Towana Looney, according to an announcement on December 17 by a New York hospital.
“It’s just an exciting time,” Ayares said during a recent tour of the research farm.
Looney donated a kidney to her mother in 1999, only for the remaining one to fail several years later after pregnancy complications.
The 53-year-old from Alabama is the latest recipient of a gene-edited pig kidney – and the only living person with an animal organ transplant.