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Martine Rothblatt
Martine Rothblatt UTHR
Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, UNITED THERAPEUTICS CORP
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ATC 2022- Thomas Starzl State-of-the-Art Lecture: Martine Rothblatt-

📅 May 26, 2026 Perennial Innovator: Dr. Martine Rothblatt 34 MIN 21 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Creating the 1st Life-Saving Xenoheart Transplanted into a Person 6/7/2022.

What Martine Rothblatt said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Martine Rothblatt described her decade-long effort to create the first life-saving xeno heart, which began with her quest to secure an unlimited supply of transplantable organs for her daughter with pulmonary arterial hypertension. She explained that existing donor lungs could not meet the need, so she pursued a strategy of genetically modifying pigs, guided by an ethical algorithm she developed in her PhD thesis. Rothblatt detailed the collaboration with Revivicor, the selection of 8 to 12 genes, and the use of an Apollo-style all-up approach to test multiple gene edits at once. She highlighted the addition of a growth hormone receptor knockout inspired by Laron syndrome to prevent organ overgrowth. The culmination was the January 7, 2022 transplant of a 10-gene xeno heart into David Bennett Sr. by Bart Griffith, with support from Muhammad Mohiuddin and others. Rothblatt also discussed plans for a designated pathogen-free production facility and the use of electric aircraft for organ delivery.

Key takeaways

  1. The 10-gene xeno heart was transplanted into David Bennett Sr. on January 7, 2022, by Bart Griffith at UMB.
  2. A growth hormone receptor knockout, inspired by Laron syndrome, was added to prevent xeno organs from growing too large.
  3. United Therapeutics is building a clinical scale production facility in Virginia and a zero-carbon facility in North Carolina.
  4. An all-electric organ delivery aircraft flew over 1,000 nautical miles from Plattsburgh, NY to Bentonville, AR with FAA approval.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
10-gene Number of genetic modifications in the xeno heart metric 22:03
1,000 nautical miles Distance of the test flight of the all-electric organ delivery aircraft metric 27:46
250 nautical miles Zero-carbon range of the organ delivery aircraft metric 27:46
8 to 12 Number of genes initially targeted for editing metric 10:15
10 years Timeframe for the gene editing program timeline 10:15
50,000 Prevalence of pulmonary hypertension patients in the US metric 2:59
200 Annual lung transplants for pulmonary hypertension in the US metric 2:59
5 Number of FDA approved medicines for pulmonary hypertension metric 2:59
2,500 Number of peer-reviewed publications by Tom Starzl metric 8:17

Chapters

  1. 0:00Origin of the xeno heart quest
  2. 5:04Ethical algorithm for xenotransplantation
  3. 8:17Meeting Tom Starzl and acquiring Revivicor
  4. 10:15Gene editing strategy and tiger team
  5. 14:09Testing and challenges in gene selection
  6. 18:09Splitting lung and heart/kidney programs
  7. 19:42Laron syndrome and growth hormone receptor knockout
  8. 22:03The 10-gene heart and its components
  9. 22:48The transplant team and the historic surgery
  10. 25:48Production facilities and organ delivery aircraft
Moderator 0:00 ↗
Everyone here. The Thomas Starzel, known as the father of transplantation, began one of the first clinically relevant kidney transplant programs back in 1962. He performed the first human liver transplant in 1963. He received the nation's highest honor for scientific achievement, the Medal of Science in 2005. In honoring his distinguished career and celebrating his pioneering contributions to the field, we have named today's lecture the Thomas Starzel state-of-the-art presentation. I'm very pleased to introduce Martine Rothblatt as the Thomas Starzel state-of-the-art presenter speaking on creating the first life-saving xeno heart transplanted into a person. Martine Rothblatt is the chairperson and CEO of United Therapeutics Corporation. She started UT to save her youngest child's life from a rare illness after having previously created SiriusXM satellite radio and other satellite communication systems. She is also responsible for several innovations in aviation and architecture, including the design and piloting of an electric helicopter to Guinness World Records and creating the world's largest zero-carbon footprint building. Her company is now saving hundreds of lives a year with medicines for pulmonary hypertension and neuroblastoma and by restoring otherwise discarded donor lungs to transplantability. United Therapeutics is also in preclinical development of manufactured kidneys, hearts and lungs to be delivered via autonomously flown electric vertical takeoff and landing systems. Dr. Rothblatt led the efforts to create the first genetically modified porcine hearts and kidneys transplanted into humans, resulting in a life-saving xeno heart transplant in January of 2022. Dr. Rothblatt earned her PhD in medical ethics from the Royal London College of Medicine and Dentistry after earning a JD and an MBA degree from UCLA. She recently also was awarded the UCLA Medal, its highest honor. She is an inventor on several patents and the author of several books, most recent of which pertain to artificial cognition and cyber consciousness. Please join me in giving a fantastic welcome to Dr. Martine Rothblatt.

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APA

Rothblatt, M. (2026, May 26). ATC 2022- Thomas Starzl State-of-the-Art Lecture: Martine Rothblatt- [Interview transcript]. Perennial Innovator: Dr. Martine Rothblatt. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/941838/

MLA

Martine Rothblatt. "ATC 2022- Thomas Starzl State-of-the-Art Lecture: Martine Rothblatt-." Perennial Innovator: Dr. Martine Rothblatt, 26 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/941838/.

BibTeX 
@misc{rothblatt2026_941838,
  author       = {Martine Rothblatt},
  title        = {ATC 2022- Thomas Starzl State-of-the-Art Lecture: Martine Rothblatt-},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Perennial Innovator: Dr. Martine Rothblatt. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {may},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/941838/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}