“In a modern glass complex in Geneva last month, hundreds of scientists from around the world gathered to share data, review cases — and revel in some astonishing progress.

Their work was once considered the stuff of science fiction: so-called xenotransplantation, the use of animal organs to replace failing kidneys, hearts and livers in humans…

Attendees were told that two patients in their 60s — a man in New England and a woman in China — had survived for more than six months with kidneys from genetically modified pigs. (The organ had to be removed from the man, who returned to dialysis.)

Several clinical trials of such organs are getting underway in the United States. The first participant in a study run by United Therapeutics, a biotech company, has just received a kidney from a pig with 10 gene edits.

Next year, another company, eGenesis, will begin a trial of kidneys transplanted from pigs that have undergone 69 gene edits. The biotech firm will also start testing pig livers to be used outside the body by patients with chronic liver disease.

The company also hopes to start offering pig heart transplants to babies born with a rare serious congenital heart defect.

And in China, where over a million people suffer from kidney failure, workers are building the largest facility of its kind to house thousands of genetically modified pigs whose organs will be used for transplants.”

From New York Times.