Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    Google’s AI try-on imagines your feet in new shoes

    October 8, 2025

    A Twitch streamer gave birth live, with Twitch’s CEO in the chat

    October 8, 2025

    Amazon is putting prescription drugs in vending machines

    October 8, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » She Didn’t Qualify for a Transplant—So Now She Has Two Pig Organs
    Science

    She Didn’t Qualify for a Transplant—So Now She Has Two Pig Organs

    News RoomBy News RoomMay 4, 20243 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    A 54-year-old New Jersey woman has become the second living person to receive a genetically engineered pig kidney. The surgery, carried out at NYU Langone Health on April 12, also involved transplanting the pig’s thymus gland to help prevent rejection.

    The patient, Lisa Pisano, had a mechanical heart pump implanted days before getting the transplant. She was facing heart failure and end-stage kidney disease and wasn’t eligible for a human organ transplant because of other health issues. Her medical team says she’s recovering well.

    “I feel fantastic,” Pisano said from her hospital bed over Zoom during a press conference on Wednesday. “When this opportunity came, I said, ‘I’m gonna take advantage of it.’”

    It’s the first instance of a patient with a mechanical heart pump receiving an organ transplant of any kind. It is the second known transplant of a gene-edited pig kidney into a living person, and the first with the pig’s thymus combined.

    The series of procedures was performed over a span of nine days. In the first, surgeons implanted the heart pump, a device called a left ventricular assist device, to replace the function of her failing heart. It’s used in patients who are awaiting heart transplantation or otherwise aren’t a candidate for a heart transplant. Without it, Pisano’s life expectancy would have been just days or weeks.

    PHOTOGRAPH: JOE CARROTTA FOR NYU LANGONE HEALTH

    The second surgery involved transplanting the pig organs. The animal’s thymus gland, which is responsible for educating the immune system, was placed under the covering of the kidney. The addition of the pig thymus is meant to reprogram Pisano’s immune system to be less likely to reject the kidney and hopefully allow doctors to reduce the amount of immunosuppressive drugs she has to take, said Robert Montgomery, director of NYU Langone’s Transplant Institute, during the press conference.

    It’s the latest attempt to transplant an animal organ in a person—a process known as xenotransplantation—as a potential way to address the organ shortage and offer transplants to people who otherwise wouldn’t get them. In the US alone, there are more than 100,000 people on the national transplant waiting list, and every day 17 people die waiting for an organ. Strict eligibility criteria means that organs are prioritized for relatively healthy patients, leaving patients like Pisano with few other options.

    Starting in 2021, the NYU team began experimenting with transplanting genetically engineered pig hearts and kidneys into deceased humans following brain death. With the consent of their families, the patients were kept on a ventilator so that researchers could assess the viability of the pig organs. In one instance, a pig kidney was able to function in a human body for up to two months—a record for xenotransplantation. In monkeys, pig kidneys have been shown to work for up to two years. Now, scientists are testing whether they can support humans in need of new kidneys.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleHere’s the letter from 14 senators slamming TSA facial recognition in airports
    Next Article School Employee Allegedly Framed a Principal With Racist Deepfake Rant

    Related Posts

    Scientists Made Human Eggs From Skin Cells and Used Them to Form Embryos

    October 7, 2025

    China Is Leading the World in the Clean Energy Transition. Here’s What That Looks Like

    October 6, 2025

    Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Wins Contract to Take NASA Rover to the Moon

    October 5, 2025

    Coke Designed a Plastic Bottle to Sell the World More Soda

    October 4, 2025

    A Startup Used AI to Make a Psychedelic Without the Trip

    October 3, 2025

    The LA Fires Spewed Out Toxic Nanoparticles. He Made It His Mission to Trace Them

    October 2, 2025
    Our Picks

    A Twitch streamer gave birth live, with Twitch’s CEO in the chat

    October 8, 2025

    Amazon is putting prescription drugs in vending machines

    October 8, 2025

    Amazfit’s Active 2, one of our favorite fitness trackers, is a steal at just $81

    October 8, 2025

    HMD’s Touch 4G is a dumb-smart-phone

    October 8, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    News

    Nothing Ear 3 review: work in progress

    By News RoomOctober 8, 2025

    Nothing’s Ear 3 buds remind me more than anything else of the Ear 1, the…

    The 208 best October Prime Day deals

    October 8, 2025

    Big Tech is ‘donating’ to Trump’s ‘nonprofits’ 

    October 8, 2025

    Some of our favorite gadgets are cheaper than ever for fall Prime Day

    October 8, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.