Surgeons transplant pig lung into brain dead human recipient for first time

Xenotransplantation has become a hot area of research in recent years, with the heart, kidneys and liver among the organs that have been transplanted into humans from pigs. Photograph: Matt Kelley/AP

Surgeons have transplanted a lung from a genetically modified pig into a brain dead human recipient for the first time and found it functioned for nine days, researchers have revealed.

The work is the latest development in a technique called xenotransplantation that is aimed at solving the organ shortage crisis: according to the World Health Organization, only up to 10% of the global need for such transplants is being met.