Pig kidney works in human body for 271 days - is this the future of organ transplants? - BBC

A kidney transplanted from a genetically modified pig functioned inside US patient Tim Andrews for 271 days, the longest such organ has worked in a human body, according to doctors at Mass General Brigham hospital.
Andrews, who received the transplant in January 2025 and left the hospital on 1 February 2025, said the procedure gave him "hope" and freed him from regular dialysis; the pig kidney was eventually removed after failing, and he needed a short return to dialysis before a human donor was found.
The medical team argues the case demonstrates pig organs can serve as a "bridge" for patients until a human transplant becomes available.
Xenotransplantation is being pursued because of severe organ shortages: roughly 100,000 people in the US await a kidney against only about 25,000 transplants a year, while more than 7,000 people in the UK are on the kidney transplant list.
Andrews was told he could wait up to seven years for a human kidney, yet patients survive an average of only five years on dialysis, underscoring the urgency behind the experimental approach.
The donor organ came from Yucatan miniature pigs that underwent 69 genomic modifications to "humanise" their tissue—removing features the human immune system attacks, adding human DNA to disguise the organ, and disabling viruses embedded in pig DNA—to prevent the body's otherwise immediate and destructive rejection response.