Towana Looney donated a kidney to her mother in 1999 only for the remaining one to fail years later due to pregnancy complications.
Now, the 53-year-old from Alabama has become the latest recipient of a gene-edited pig kidney — and is currently the only living person in the world with an animal organ transplant, New York’s NYU Langone hospital announced Tuesday.
“I’m overjoyed, I’m blessed to have received this gift, this second chance at life,” Looney said during a press conference, held three weeks after the procedure.
Xenotransplantation, transplanting organs from one species to another, has long been a tantalizing yet elusive scientific goal. Early experiments on primates faltered, but recent advances in gene editing and immune system management have brought the dream closer to reality.
Pigs have emerged as the ideal donors: they grow quickly, produce large litters and are already part of the human food supply.
