Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, the H. Leon Pachter, MD, Professor of Surgery and chair of the Department of Surgery, has been recognized by Newsweek as one of America’s Greatest Disruptors.

Dr. Montgomery, who is also director of NYU Langone’s Transplant Institute, was acknowledged for his breakthrough xenotransplantation of a genetically modified pig kidney to a human. The organ functioned as a healthy human kidney for 54 hours. The recipient was recently deceased and maintained on ventilator support. Dr. Montgomery expects that a live human could receive such a kidney within a year—paving the way for a sustainable source of life-saving organs for the thousands of people who die waiting for one each year.

“This paradigm just isn't working,” he says. “We need a renewable, unlimited source of organs.”

Read more in Newsweek.