The scientist behind the recent landmark success story in the world of first transplanting the pig heart into human in the United States is Dr. Muhammad Mansoor Mohiuddin, a Pakistani-born MBBS doctor of Dow Medical College of Karachi as well as co-founding director of the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. 

Dr. Mohiuddin spent last 30 years trying to figure out how to increase the chances of survival for terminal patients in need of a heart transplant. In an interview he said, “Just in the United States, 150,000 people are waiting for different organ transplants. Unfortunately, many of them will die waiting because there’s no alternative available. Our idea is to somehow find that alternative.”

He said, “Our idea is to transplant a pig heart into a human by using mild immunosuppressant drugs with anti-CD40 antibody for a longer viability until human heart becomes available, otherwise if last no reason to replace it.”

Pic from a video in the website of University of Maryland – School of Medicine, here