US surgeons say pig kidney functional in human for more than a month

US surgeons who transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a brain dead patient said Wednesday the organ was still working well after a record 32 days -- a significant step in the quest to close the organ donation gap. "We have a genetically edited pig kidney surviving for over a month in a human," Robert Montgomery, director of the New York University Langone Transplant Institute, told reporters. Montgomery carried out the first genetically modified pig kidney transplant to a human in September 2021, followed by a similar procedure in November 2021. Both of the patient's own kidneys were removed, then one pig kidney was transplanted, and started immediately producing urine. No evidence of pig virusCrucially, no evidence of porcine cytomegalovirus -- which may trigger organ failure -- have been detected since the transplant, and the team plan to continue monitoring for another month.