Transplants

Diabetic Man With Gene-Edited Cells Produces His Own Insulin—No Transplant Drugs Required

A proof-of-concept study finds that donated insulin-producing cells can be genetically modified to avoid provoking the recipient's immune system.

Scientists Are Developing Brain Implants That Could Revolutionize Parkinson’s Treatment

Brain implants, made from small clusters of brain cells, could help restore neural pathways damaged by Parkinson’s disease.

Man Who Received Historic Pig Kidney Transplant Did Not Die From It

Doctors say that Richard Slayman's body did not reject a pig kidney modified to become more compatible with human biology.

In Medical First, Woman’s Type 1 Diabetes Seemingly Cured by Stem Cells

The 25-year-old woman is still making her own insulin a year after having gotten a transplant of her modified stem cells, scientists say.

What My Stupid Body Taught Me About Organ Donation During a Pandemic

Four weeks ago, I strolled into Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital to a ghost waiting room. All the trappings of a normal outpatient hospital were there: TVs blaring cable news, taupe-colored chairs, fake plants. But where patients and their loved ones would usually be waiting, there was just one solitary person. I was here…

A New Machine Keeps Livers Alive Outside the Human Body for an Entire Week

A new system is capable of maintaining a human liver outside the body for seven days, during which time the damaged organ can be repaired and prepared for transplantation. At best, conventional technologies can sustain a liver outside the body for around 24 hours, but the new perfusion machine, developed by scientists from University Hospital…

Viagra Might Someday Enhance Bone Marrow Transplants

The long story of sildenafil citrate, best known by the brand name Viagra, may have another chapter to it. Researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz think the drug can improve how we perform bone marrow transplants, as part of a combination therapy that allows doctors to harvest stem cells from patients quicker and…

Certain People—Maybe Even You—Have Special Poop That Can Save Lives

There are plenty of people who are exceptional in one way or another. But a new review published this week suggests that even the poop we make can be extraordinary. It argues that some of us are super fecal transplant donors, with poop that is uniquely suited to treating digestive and gut problems. Our excrement…

Baboon Survives for Six Months With a Pig’s Heart Beating in Its Chest

A baboon survived 195 days after an experimental heart transplant, according to a new paper. But the heart didn’t come from another baboon—it came from a pig. There are far more people who desperately need organ transplants than there are donor organs available—nearly 4,000 Americans are currently waiting for a heart, for example. Scientists have…

World’s First Total Penis and Scrotum Transplant Allows Patient to ‘Feel Whole Again’

A surgical team from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore performed a total penis and scrotum transplant, the first operation of its kind anywhere in the world. The 14-hour procedure, called a vascularized composite allotransplantation, was carried out by two urological surgeons and nine plastic surgeons on March 26, 2018. Incredibly, the transplant involved a single…

Head Transplant Doctor Claims First Successful Human Head Transplant…on a Corpse

One nice thing about teddy bears is that if your dog tears the head off of your child’s favorite one, you can just sew it back on. But you don’t proclaim your achievement a “wild success”—rather, you say, “here, I have fixed your lifeless play-thing.” Yet here comes Sergio Canavero, the controversial Italian doctor who…

Head Transplant Scientists Re-Attach Rat Spines, Others Not Convinced

Sergio Canavero wants to transplant a head, and we can’t look away. Despite our continued skepticism, he does seem to be making progress. “Seem” being the operative word here, because others still aren’t convinced by the evidence. Canavero and a team of Chinese doctors at Harbin Medical Center have announced that they’ve successfully severed and…

First American to Receive Double Hand Transplant Wants Them Removed

Jeff Kepner, the first American to receive a double hand transplant, wishes they could be removed. In an interview with TIME published today he revealed that the transplant was unsuccessful and he has never been able to utilize his hands. “I sit in my chair all day and wear my TV out,” he said. Kepner…

First Uterus Transplant in US Offers Hope to Thousands of Infertile Women

A team of surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic have performed the first uterus transplant in the United States. A 26-year-old woman underwent the nine-hour operation on Wednesday, setting the stage for a future pregnancy—and what might possibly become a routine procedure in US hospitals. The unidentified woman, who received the transplanted uterus from a deceased…

Behold the Most Extensive Face Transplant in Medical History

A firefighter from Mississippi whose face became disfigured during a rescue attempt is the recipient of the world’s most extensive face transplant. The 41-year-old now bears the face of a 26-year-old man who recently died in an extreme cycling accident. As reported in Reuters, the 26-hour surgery was performed by a 150-person medical team (!)…

An 8-year-old boy has become the youngest recipient of a double-hand transplant. Four surgical teams worked in shifts for 11 hours to perform the operation at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Zion Harvey will have to remain on medications for the rest of his life, but his new hands are expected to function and grow…

This Neuroscientist Says He’ll Do a Human Head Transplant Very Soon

An Italian neuroscientist who has been advocating for head transplants now wants to make one actually happen. He’ll be announcing a project at a surgical conference later this year. Here’s how the proposed human head transplant will work—supposedly. In 2013, Sergio Canavero of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group proposed that human head transplants could soon…

Burned Teen Grows New Face Parts on Her Chest (Warning: Graphic)

Holy crap. A 17-year-old girl in China’s Fujian Province has just received a new face from skin that was grown on her very own chest. Oh, the marvels of modern medicine. Advanced warning that while this story is ultimately uplifting, the images below are pretty gross. When she was five she sustained horrible burns that…

Human head transplants? Neurosurgeon says ‘we have the technology’

An Italian neuroscientist says that human head transplants are possible using currently available medical techniques. And he’s setting up a project to prove it. Dr. Sergio Canavero, who works for the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, published his proposal in the medical journal Surgical Neurology International —and he’s calling it the “Head Anastomois Venture,” or HEAVEN…

A Neuroscientist Says Human Head Transplants Are Totally Possible

At least one Italian scientist is completely and totally serious that head transplants on humans might soon be possible. How the hell? In a new paper, Dr. Sergio Canavero, a member of the Turin Neuromodulation group, discusses how scientists have been experimenting with head transplants on animals for more than 40 years. But these doctors…