It marked the longest a genetically modified pig kidney has ever functioned inside a human, albeit a deceased one. “Two months is a lot to have a pig kidney in this good a condition. Political Cartoons View All 1160 ImagesSo-called xenotransplantation attempts have failed for decades — the human immune system immediately destroyed foreign animal tissue. Montgomery gambled that maintaining Miller's body on a ventilator for two months to see how the pig kidney worked could answer some of those questions. She recently got a card from a stranger in California who's awaiting a kidney transplant, thanking her for helping to move forward desperately needed research.

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Persons: gurney, Maurice “ Mo ” Miller, “, Dr, Robert Montgomery, Montgomery, ”, Mary Miller, Duffy, Miller, ” Miller, Sue Duffy, Montgomery’s, immunologist Massimo Mangiola, Jeffrey Stern, Karen Maschke, Mangiola Organizations: NYU Langone, Food and Drug Administration, Associated Press, University of Maryland, FDA, NYU, Hastings Center, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: Newburgh , New York, California