Woman speaks out after receiving gene-edited pig kidney transplant

Towana Looney became the fifth American to receive a gene-edited pig organ last month and is recovering well.

Looney's transplant is the third time a kidney from a gene-edited pig has been transplanted into a living human, but prior transplants have been for people who were brain dead or at high risk of dying within months. Looney, who started dialysis treatment in 2016 after developing kidney failure and was listed for kidney transplantation in early 2017, according to NYU Langone Health, where Looney received her transplant surgery, is the first otherwise healthy patient given a genetically modified pig kidney, raising hope that one day pig kidneys could help ease the ongoing organ shortage.

Looney said in a press conference Tuesday that she feels "blessed" to have received "a second chance at life."

"I want to give courage to those on dialysis," she added. "It's not easy, and it's not the only option. There's hope."

For various medical reasons, Looney could not find a human match, making her eligible for the still-experimental procedure.

"Without a pathway to receiving a human kidney, she decided a gene edited pig kidney was worth a try," Robert Montgomery, M.D., DPhil, who led the surgery and is director of the NYU Langone Transplant institute, said during Tuesday's press conference.

According to NYU Langone Health, while at home in Alabama, Looney was originally under the care of Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, a transplant surgeon at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was recently appointed as director of the Division of Transplantation at the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.

Locke said this week, "Pioneers in the field of medicine had genetically engineered a pig that it turned out Towana was a great match with, and this really afforded her the opportunity to achieve the gift of life."

The world's first genetically edited pig kidney transplant into a living human was performed earlier this year, but the recipient died nearly 2 months later.

The first combined mechanical heart pump and gene-edited pig kidney transplant surgery was performed at NYU Langone in April of this year, but the recipient later died in July.

Looney's doctors said they remain hopeful because Looney isn't as sick as prior recipients.

"I think the main difference … is that Towana is in much better shape physically. Her disease has not extended to the point where she was at high risk for dying very soon," Montgomery said.

As Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, director of the transplant infectious disease program at University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in Looney's transplant, explained, "This might be the first time to get over the two month mark, which has been the time when people have lived or died before."

When asked about next steps, Montgomery said he's sure there will be more patients like Looney through the FDA's expanded access or compassionate use program and that there will be clinical trials starting "probably by this time next year, or even sooner."

"Our challenge is to learn how to support these kidneys for longer periods of time so that they become a reasonable alternative for this scarce, highly rationed supply of human organs," Montgomery said.

Niki Iranpour, M.D., is an internal medicine resident at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.