Pig kidney transplant patient completes recovery and returns home

Three months after her breakthrough surgery at NYU Langone Health, Towana Looney, the longest-living recipient of a genetically engineered pig kidney, is headed back home to Alabama.

"I feel blessed," said the 53-year-old grandmother. "I'm so grateful to be alive and thankful to have received this incredible gift. It couldn't have happened without God and the amazing team of doctors, nurses, and researchers who have been by my side."

During the November 25, 2024, transplant surgery at NYU Langone's Kimmel Pavilion, Looney received a kidney from a 10-gene-edited pig, becoming only the third person in the world to receive a pig kidney. She has since been under the close care and observation of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute team while living in an apartment in Manhattan. She returned south Tuesday, February 25, but will continue to be monitored by the NYU Langone team, returning monthly for checkups.

"Towana's recovery from a long history of kidney failure and dialysis treatment has been nothing short of remarkable," said Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, who led the procedure and who is the H. Leon Pachter, MD, Professor of Surgery; chair of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine Department of Surgery; and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute. "We are committed to giving her the best possible chance at life and providing ongoing care from our world-class team of experts. We're so pleased to see her go back home to her extended family healthy and ready to take on a whole new phase in her long life ahead."

Looney's surgery was the latest in a series of similar procedures known as xenotransplantation, which is the practice of transplanting organs between species. Prior to the xenotransplant, her medical condition was worsening due to eight years of dialysis treatment for end-stage kidney failure. After donating a kidney to her mother earlier in life, a complication during pregnancy led to kidney failure and unusually high levels of harmful antibodies that prevented her from receiving a human transplant.

In Alabama, Looney was originally under the care of Jayme Locke, MD, MPH, a transplant surgeon who led innovations in xenotransplantation while at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Locke, who is now a clinical faculty member at NYU Langone, initiated the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) application for expanded access to receive an experimental treatment, otherwise known as a compassionate use application.

Looney's new kidney, called a UKidney, was from a pig with 10 gene edits developed by Revivicor Inc., a subsidiary of United Therapeutics Corporation. The gene edits help make the kidney more compatible with the human recipient and reduce the likelihood of rejection. The gene edits, pig breeding, and production of the investigational UKidney used in this procedure were performed by United Therapeutics and Revivicor. No other unapproved devices or medications were used in Looney's surgery and postsurgical care.

Earlier this month, the FDA authorized United Therapeutics to initiate the first-ever multicenter clinical study of the UKidney, with an initial cohort of 6 patients with kidney failure and expanding up to 50 participants.

Nearly 104,000 people are on the waiting list for a transplant, with over 90,400 of those waiting for a kidney. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, more than 1 in 7 adults—about 35.5 million people—have chronic kidney disease in the United States. Of those, the National Institutes of Health estimates nearly 808,000 have end-stage kidney disease, yet there were only 27,759 kidney transplants in 2024.