A 53-year-old woman from Alabama has a new lease on life after receiving a gene-edited kidney obtained from a pig. According to her doctors, Towana Looney has been living a healthy life with the new organ for over a month after she got the transplant done in New York.

Looney’s kidney failure began in 1999 when she donated one of her kidneys to her ailing mother. But later, complications due to a pregnancy led to a spike in blood pressure that caused failure in the remaining kidney. By 2016, Looney was on dialysis and was placed on the kidney transplant list.

Her candidacy for a human kidney was limited by the high likelihood, in her case, that her immune system would reject the donor's organ. However, for eight years there was no success and Looney kept losing blood vessels crucial to supporting dialysis.

Finally, she qualified for the compassionate use clause of a US Food and Drug Administration expanded access program that involved the experimental use of pig kidneys.

Doctors said the porcine kidney that Looney received had undergone at least ten genetic edits to make it suitable for transplant into humans. The procedure, known as xenotransplantation or species-to-species transplant, is still in its infant stage, but nearly 30 days after her surgery, Looney is in good health, her doctors said.

“It’s a blessing,” she said in a Langone news release. “I feel like I’ve been given another chance at life. I cannot wait to be able to travel again and spend more quality time with my family and grandchildren."

Doctors said Looney is the third human across the world to get a gene-edited pig kidney, and she is the only person currently living with any type of pig organ. She's also the only person to receive a pig kidney with 10 separate genetic edits, allowing the organ to function normally within a person.

“Towana represents the culmination of the progress we have made in xenotransplantation since we performed the first surgery in 2021," said Dr. Robery Montgomery, who led the complicated transplant operation, told an NYU Langone new release. "She serves as a beacon of hope to those struggling with kidney failure. All the physicians, researchers, nurses, administrators, and perioperative care teams at NYU Langone Health involved in making this moment possible are so thrilled for her, and I couldn’t be more proud of what they have done to improve Towana’s life through this incredible scientific achievement,” he added.

According to the Langone news release, nearly 104,000 people across the United States are currently on the waiting list for an organ transplant, with over 90,400 of those patients waiting for a kidney.

The situation for many is dire: Over 808,000 Americans currently have end-stage kidney disease, but only 27,000 people were able to receive a new kidney in 2023.

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