Are we ready for this?

Pig heart transplants for humans in three years

By Mike Swain, Science Editor

London: Pig organs genetically-modified for use in transplants to humans could be ready in three years.

Lord Robert Winston, who heads a team working to develop a new strain of mini-pig with a heart, kidney and liver the human body will not reject, yesterday said: “This is very exciting technology.

He added: “Potentially we could have organs which might be transplantable in two or three years.”

But Lord Winston warned that because of the rigorous testing that was necessary the first hospital transplants were probably a decade away.

He said: “If you are going to put organs back into humans you have got to be pretty sure you are not making a mess. And that will take a lot of testing.”

But, Lord Winston said, once the system was working the genetically-altered pigs could be bred to provide a limitless supply of organs.

He added: “Essentially if you wait for a transplant you wait for someone to die in a car crash. The pig offers some special possibilities.”