An American company that successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a man has revealed an ambitious plan to place pig hearts into the bodies of babies with life-threatening defects from later this year.
In a tour of their plant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the biotech company eGenesis said it offered hope to millions of people on organ donor lists worldwide.
Mike Curtis, its chief executive and president, believes animal-to-human transplants, known as xenotransplantation, will not only one day eliminate kidney waiting lists but also remove the need for dialysis entirely, while helping thousands of babies who die each year due to critical congenital heart failure.
“It’s a scale which we think is achievable, but it won’t happen overnight,” Curtis said. The company is conducting live trials