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When Alva Capuano was discovered unconscious in her living room, her husband, Richard, and then paramedics did everything possible to get her heart beating again. But by the time it did, her brain had experienced irreversible damage. Her family accepted that Alva, 64, was gone. Their sorrow fueled a determination to fulfill her last wish: As the recipient of a donated pancreas and kidney, Alva had hoped to become an organ donor herself.
Read the article from NYU Langone Health NewsHub.
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Ten months after transplanting the first genetically-modified pig heart into a human patient, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers continue to report on new findings from the landmark transplant. Their latest study demonstrates for the first time that unexpected electrical changes occurred in the pig heart transplanted into the patient David Bennett. The findings were presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) meeting this past weekend. Read more in News Medical Life Sciences.
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In the first transplant of a genetically altered pig heart into a human in January, initial unexpected, prolonged ECG readings apparently did not affect the heart’s function, although the organ suddenly began to fail at day 50.
A study of these ECG changes, scheduled for presentation by Calvin Kagan, MD, and colleagues at the American Heart Association (AHA) 2022 Scientific Sessions, offers insight into this novel operation. Read more in Medscape.
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— Transplant surgeons discuss testing the concept in more humans
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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Playing by the strict rules of the FDA, xenotransplant researchers are itching to apply the lessons learned from this year’s historic case of cardiac surgery in their quest to move the transplant field forward amid a strained supply of donor organs.
In the landmark case, the first person to undergo a pig heart xenotransplant, David Bennett, age 57, had been denied a traditional human heart transplant from several programs before he ultimately agreed to the experimental surgery. The FDA green-lit the xenotransplant, and Bennett was kept alive for 60 days before succumbing to graft failure and sudden diastolic failure without evidence of traditional allograft rejection.
Read the full story in MedPage Today.
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Abstract
Xenotransplantation holds a promising future for many patients, especially those with end-stage renal disease or uncontrollable serum glucose levels. Porcine organs are viewed as the perfect candidate for a source of xenografts. However, the recipient’s immunity, incompatibility of biologic systems, and transfer of new pathogenic organisms are all obstacles to clinical xenotransplantation, in addition to the risk of zoonosis and xenoantigens. Genetic modification of pigs using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) resulted in the production of porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV)-free offsprings with the consequent removal of many clinical complications post-transplantation. Read the complete abstract from Cureus.
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In the past month, researchers transplanted pig hearts into two people who had suffered catastrophic heart failure and were left brain dead but remained on life support.
New research in which doctors transplanted genetically modified pig hearts into people who were clinically dead could pave the way for human trials and a future with more organ transplants that can prolong lives.
In the past month, researchers at NYU Langone Health transplanted pig hearts into two people who had recently suffered catastrophic heart failure and were left brain dead but remained on life support. Read more from NBC News here.
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A team at NYU Langone Health successfully transplanted two genetically engineered pig hearts into recently deceased humans in June and July, part of an effort to create a xenotransplantation protocol for people with heart disease.
The two xenotransplants were performed June 16 and July 6 with two recently deceased donors maintained on ventilator support at NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital. The team of surgeons then monitored heart function for 3 days for each donor.
Read the full article in Healio.
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Patient Survived for Two Months After First-of-Its-Kind Transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center
Newswise — BALTIMORE, June 22, 2022 – Six months ago, University of Maryland School of Medicine surgeon-scientists successfully implanted a genetically modified pig heart into a 57 year-old patient with terminal heart disease in a first-of-its-kind surgery. It was considered an early success because the patient lived for two months with a strong functioning heart showing no obvious signs of rejection, according to a new paper published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Read more in News Wise.
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On April 13, CareDx hosted a webinar to explore the future of xenotransplantation. Panelists included Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of NYU Langone Transplant Institute, and chair of the hospital’s Department of Surgery. Dr. Montgomery led the team that did the first human xenotransplant using a pig kidney. He spent 30 years at Johns Hopkins and moved to NYU Langone in 2016. Two years later, he was the recipient of a heart transplant, which gave him a fresh and unique perspective on the transplant journey.
Dr. Montgomery was joined by Michael Curtis, president and head of Research and Development at eGenesis Inc., which is working to scale xenotransplantation to help more patients, and Jim Gleason, National President of Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO), which serves as the voice of the transplant patient. Gleason is also a heart transplant recipient who is particularly excited about xenotransplantation because he believes it addresses what he called “the #1 unmet need in transplantation: the organ supply.”
This article is adapted from our webinar conversation, edited only for clarity and length. Read the full story on CareDx.com.
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April 13, 2022
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3:00 pm
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4:00 pm
Xenotransplantation has been making headlines in recent months, and it has people asking, “What is that?!” Join CareDx and Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO) to learn more about this hot topic. We will cover the following:
What You’ll Learn:
– Explanation and history of xenotransplantation
– Potential to address the organ shortage
– Creation of genetically modified animals
– Impact on the future of transplant
Who should attend? Heart, kidney, liver and lung transplant recipients, pre-transplant patients, care partners, and anyone in the transplant community.
To register, visit To register, visit https://bit.ly/3v4ODLN
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