Three months after her surgery at NYU Langone Health (New York, USA), the longest-living recipient of a genetically engineered pig kidney, 53-year-old Towana Looney, has returned to her home in Alabama.
Looney received a kidney from a 10-gene-edited pig during the 25 November 2024 transplant surgery at NYU Langone’s Kimmel Pavilion, becoming only the third person in the world to receive a pig kidney.
She was under the close care and observation of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute team while living in an apartment in Manhattan. She returned home on 25 February, 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, who led the procedure. “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, a transplant surgeon who led innovations in xenotransplantation while at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Locke, who is now a clinical faculty member at NYU Langone, initiated the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) application for expanded access to receive an experimental treatment, otherwise known as a compassionate use application.
