Much like college athletes, pigs are increasingly entering the transfer portal

On Friday, surgeons at the University of Maryland transplanted a genetically modified pig’s heart into a man with terminal heart disease and no other treatment options, marking the second successful operation of its kind in history.

🐖 Some quick background: Pigs have been used in human medicine for decades, since their organs are anatomically similar to ours. They're also less likely to have unique diseases, due to close contact with humans for generations.

But prior to 2021, all attempts at pig-to-human organ transplants had failed because people’s immune systems immediately destroyed the foreign tissue. This led scientists to develop a new method, where pigs are genetically modified to make their organs more human-like.

This new process is already seeing results. Last year, the same Maryland team performed the world’s first transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart into another dying man, who survived for two months following the surgery.

• And, earlier this month, NYU scientists ended their experiment in which a genetically-modified pig kidney worked normally inside a brain-dead man for a record two months.

📸 Zoom out: Roughly 106,000 Americans are currently on the organ transplant list, with about 17 of them dying each day.

And while 60% of the US population is signed up to be an organ donor, only 3 in 1,000 people die in a way that allows for their organs to actually be donated – though scientists hope genetically-modified pig organs will soon be able to solve existing shortages.