Surgeons in New York successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a human subject, reports The Economist. The kidney, experimentally attached for three days ito a brain-dead patient, marks substantial advances in the science of xenotransplantation.
In 2014, a firm called Synthetic Genomics in La Jolla, California, began work on a unique and radical project. The idea was to make a raft of genetic changes to pigs so that their organs would be more suitable for transplantation into humans without rejection. The purpose was to address the growing shortage of organs for transplantation. Synthetic Genomics partnered with another biotech firm, United Therapeutics Corporation, based in Silver Spring, Maryland. United Therapeutics reckons that in America alone, 1m people each year have end-stage organ disease and may need a heart, kidney, or lung transplant.
The Economist, bastion of measured, serious unbylined news journalism, tagged the story "Offaly good".
