More than 100,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant. Thirteen of them will die today. The math has never worked: there are simply not enough donors to meet the need, and that gap has persisted for decades.
Two different technologies are now attacking the problem from different directions.
The first is xenotransplantation, transplanting organs from animals, specifically pigs, whose organs have been genetically modified to be more compatible with the human body. In November 2024, Towana Looney became one of the first patients to receive a gene-edited pig kidney in a formal clinical trial at NYU Langone Health. She lived with the organ for 130 days, longer than any pig kidney transplant recipient in history, before an infection forced her to reduce her anti-rejection medication, triggering rejection. The kidney was surgically removed and she returned to dialysis, but she recovered quickly and went home to Alabama. It was a setback, but also proof that a pig kidney can function inside a human being for months. Trials are continuing at multiple hospitals.
The second approach is growing organs in the laboratory entirely from human cells. In June 2025, Stanford researchers achieved a breakthrough in growing heart and liver organoids, miniature organ structures with functional blood vessels, overcoming a key barrier that had limited earlier attempts. A fully transplantable lab-grown organ is likely still a decade away. The pig kidney is not.
Neither technology is ready to solve the transplant crisis today. Both are closer than they have ever been.
