Surgeons Leonardo Riella and Tatsuo Kawai with affected person Tim Andrews after Andrews’ xenotransplant in 2025. (Kate Flock/Massachusetts Common Hospital)
A person who lived with a pig kidney for 271 days earlier than later receiving a human organ reveals how the observe of xenotransplantation may assist bridge the hole for sufferers on the donor listing, a brand new paper discovered.
The Mass Common Brigham paper was printed Sept. 3 in The Lancet.
Tim Andrews’ pig kidney transplant
The backstory:
In response to a information launch from Mass General Brigham, 66-year-old Tim Andrews acquired a genetically modified pig kidney transplant in January 2025. The pig organ transplant – generally known as xenotransplantation – allowed Andrews to skip dialysis for 271 days earlier than he had the organ eliminated Oct. 23 as a result of its perform was declining.
Andrews resumed dialysis earlier than receiving a human kidney transplant in January 2026.
What they’re saying:
Researchers say Andrews’ case is a prime example of how xenotransplantation may “bridge the hole between end-stage kidney failure and a human transplant, permitting a affected person to forgo dialysis within the meantime.”
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“The organ scarcity is the best disaster now we have proper now in transplantation,” mentioned lead creator Dr. Leonardo Riella, of the Middle for Transplantation Sciences and the Division of Nephrology at Mass Common Brigham. “We all know that the perfect remedy possibility for sufferers with end-stage kidney illness who’ve developed renal failure is transplantation, however we merely don’t have sufficient human organs to transplant in a well timed method. Our imaginative and prescient is that xenotransplantation may assist deal with this hole—initially as a bridge to get sufferers off dialysis whereas they anticipate a human donor kidney, and doubtlessly, as we set up long-term security and sturdiness, as a vacation spot remedy in its personal proper.”
The historical past of xenotransplantation
Dig deeper:
Andrews’ expertise illustrates classes researchers have discovered with every experiment. The primary makes an attempt utilizing pig organs gene-edited to be extra humanlike – two hearts and two kidneys – had been short-lived.
The first one in 2024, also at Massachusetts General Hospital, resulted within the affected person surviving 52 days earlier than loss of life from cardiac causes unrelated to the transplant.
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Then researchers started contemplating sufferers not practically as sick as prior recipients for these experiments — and an Alabama woman’s pig kidney lasted 130 days earlier than it needed to be eliminated final spring, the report Andrews surpassed.
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By the numbers:
Greater than 100,000 individuals, most needing kidneys, are on the U.S. transplant listing, and 1000’s die ready.
“The sufferers are the true pioneers right here,” Riella mentioned. “By stepping ahead and being keen to take part in these early-stage research, they’re advancing the science. With out their belief and braveness, we’d not be capable of do what we do.”
The Supply: This report contains info from Mass Common Brigham hospital and The Related Press.
