SHILLONG – For 271 days, a 66-year-old man lived with a kidney from a gene-edited pig instead of undergoing dialysis. He eventually received a human donor kidney, in the first reported case of a pig kidney being used as a bridge to a human transplant.
The transplant was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States in January 2025. The kidney came from a genetically modified pig. Scientists altered its genes to reduce the human body’s rejection of the animal organ and lower the risk of pig-borne infections.
The patient, Tim Andrews, remained dialysis-free for 271 days before the pig kidney was removed. He later received a human kidney in January 2026. Researchers reported the case as the first use of a pig kidney as a bridge to a human kidney transplant.
The development, however, does not mean pig kidneys are ready for patients in Meghalaya or elsewhere in India. Scientists still have to deal with immune rejection, infections and how long a modified animal organ can safely function inside a human body.
The problem behind the research is already familiar in India. Patients with severe kidney disease can require regular dialysis while waiting for a suitable donor, but human kidneys remain limited.
The Northeast faces the same challenge. NOTTO data for 2024 recorded 70 kidney transplants in Assam and none in Meghalaya. The figures show transplants performed, not the number of people living with kidney disease.
NEIGRIHMS in Shillong has renal transplant services among its specialised programmes, but gene-edited pig kidneys remain experimental and are not a treatment available in Meghalaya.
For now, the number that matters is simple: 70 kidney transplants in Assam, zero recorded in Meghalaya in 2024.
