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Surgeons transplanted a pig’s liver into a human

The gene-edited organ was hooked up inside the body of a brain-dead recipient 

This pink and black miniature pig donated its liver to a brain-dead person for a pig-to-human transplant.

This genetically modified miniature pig served as a liver donor for a brain-dead human recipient.

K-S Tao et al./Nature 2025

By Meghan Rosen

Surgeons have now published the first report of a gene-edited pig liver transplanted into a person.

The liver, which came from a genetically modified pig, appeared to stay active, producing bile and liver proteins inside the brain-dead transplant recipient, researchers report March 26 in Nature.

Such a transplant could one day buy time for people waiting on the liver transplant list.