Doctors remove pig kidney from an Alabama woman after a record 130 days
Towana Looney, a pig kidney transplant recipient, gets a morning check-up with Dr. Jeffrey Stern at NYU Langone Health in New York, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.
By Lauran Neergaard
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Alabama woman who lived with a pig kidney for a record 130 days had the organ removed after her body began rejecting it and is back on dialysis, doctors announced Friday – a disappointment in the ongoing quest for animal-to-human transplants.
Towana Looney is recovering well from the April 4 removal surgery at NYU Langone Health and has returned home to Gadsden, Alabama. In a statement, she thanked her doctors for “the opportunity to be part of this incredible research.”
“Though the outcome is not what anyone wanted, I know a lot was learned from my 130 days with a pig kidney – and that this can help and inspire many others in their journey to overcoming kidney disease,” Looney added.
Scientists are genetically altering pigs so their organs are more humanlike to address a severe shortage of transplantable human organs. More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant list, most who need a kidney, and thousands die waiting.
Before Looney’s transplant only four other Americans had received experimental xenotransplants of gene-edited pig organs – two hearts and two kidneys that lasted no longer than two months. Those recipients, who were severely ill before the surgery, died.
Now researchers are attempting these transplants in slightly less sick patients, like Looney. A New Hampshire man who received a pig kidney in January is faring well and a rigorous study of pig kidney transplants is set to begin this summer. Chinese researchers also recently announced a successful kidney xenotransplant.
Looney had been on dialysis since 2016 and didn’t qualify for a regular transplant – her body was abnormally primed to reject a human kidney. So she sought out a pig kidney and it functioned well – she called herself “superwoman” and lived longer than anyone with a gene-edited pig organ before, from her Nov. 25 transplant until early April when her body began rejecting it.
NYU xenotransplant pioneer Dr. Robert Montgomery, Looney’s surgeon, said what triggered that rejection is being investigated. But he said Looney and her doctors agreed it would be less risky to remove the pig kidney than to try saving it with higher, riskier doses of anti-rejection drugs.
“We did the safe thing,” Montgomery told The Associated Press. “She’s no worse off than she was before (the xenotransplant) and she would tell you she’s better off because she had this 4½ month break from dialysis.”
Shortly before the rejection began, Looney had suffered an infection related to her prior time on dialysis and her immune-suppressing anti-rejection drugs were slightly lowered, Montgomery said. At the same time, her immune system was reactivating after the transplant. Those factors may have combined to damage the new kidney, he said.
Rejection is a common threat after transplants of human organs, too, and sometimes cost patients their new organ. Doctors face a balancing act in tamping down patients’ immune systems just enough to preserve the new organ while allowing them to fight infection.
It’s an even bigger challenge with xenotransplantation. While these pig organs have been altered to help prevent immediate rejection, patients still require immune-suppressing drugs. Which drugs are best to prevent different, later forms of rejection isn’t clear, said Dr. Tatsuo Kawai of Massachusetts General Hospital, another xenotransplant pioneer. Different research groups are using different combinations, he said.
“When we have more experience, we’ll know what kind of immunosuppression is really necessary for xenotransplant,” Kawai said
Montgomery said Looney’s experience offers valuable lessons for the upcoming clinical trial.
Making xenotransplant ultimately work “is going to be won with singles and doubles, not swinging for the fence every time we do one of these,” he said.
Kimmel and Colbert appear as guests on each other’s shows
On Tuesday night, in New York City, they united in a special talk show crossover of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS.
Taylor Swift popularized fighting for masters. Are more artists getting ownership?
Taylor Swift turned masters ownership from a behind-the-scenes conversation into a mainstream debate about artist autonomy. But how has that fight influenced other artists in the music industry?
Federal agencies are rehiring workers and spending more after DOGE’s push to cut
Eight months after the Department of Government Efficiency effort to shrink the federal workforce began, some agencies are hiring workers back – and spending more money than before.
Fans of the mysterious Mothman bring its West Virginia hometown new life
It started in the 1960s, when two couples told a harrowing story about being chased by a large flying creature on a rural road. It grew from there — and now 20,000 people come to celebrate Mothman.
A GOP push to restrict voting by overseas U.S. citizens continues before 2026 midterms
Republican officials are pushing for more voting restrictions on U.S. citizens who were born abroad and have never lived in the country, after unsuccessfully challenging their ballots in 2024.
Poll: Agreement that political violence may be necessary to right the country grows
On hot button issues, a majority say children should be vaccinated; controlling gun violence is more important than gun rights; and Epstein files should be released, in a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.