On a farm in the southern US state of Virginia, David Ayares and his research teams are breeding genetically modified pigs to transplant their organs into human patients.
Revivicor, the biotech company Ayares leads, is at the forefront of xenotransplantation research – the implantation of animal organs into humans – which aims to solve a chronic organ shortage that has thousands of Americans dying each year.
It was on this farm that Revivicor bred a pig whose kidney was recently transplanted into patient Towana Looney, according to an announcement made Tuesday by a New York hospital.
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“It’s just an exciting time,” Ayares told AFP during a recent tour of the research farm.
The pigs are genetically modified to make their organs less likely to be rejected by patients’ immune systems.
“These pigs are not typical farm pigs,” said Ayares, as he cradled several pink piglets in his arms. “Millions of dollars have gone into the production of these genetics, and so they’re very high-value animals.”
The kidneys may one day sell for $1 million.
For more than 20 years, Revivicor in Blacksburg, Virginia has been conducting research to turn pig-to-human transplantation from science fiction to life-saving medical care.
In the United States alone, more than 100,000 people are on the transplant list and thousands die every year waiting, most often for a kidney, according to health authorities.
Since 2021, several US surgeons have successfully transplanted genetically modified pig kidneys and hearts into humans, most of them supplied by Revivicor. Another key provider is the biotech firm eGenesis.
The first line of pigs developed by Revivicor carried only one genome edit meant to deactivate the animal’s production of a substance that causes people to reject the transplanted organ.
The second has 10 modified genes, six of which come from human DNA in order to improve biological compatibility.
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