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Martine Rothblatt
Martine Rothblatt UTHR
Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, UNITED THERAPEUTICS CORP
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ISDC 2019 ISDC - Martine Rothblatt (June 2019) J

📅 May 26, 2026 Perennial Innovator: Dr. Martine Rothblatt 9 MIN 5 SEGMENTS · 1 SPEAKERS
June 6, 2019 PPT Presentation Public Version Final.

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 United Therapeutics' process for manufacturing personalized lungs using 3D bioprinters at its Manchester, New Hampshire facility. She explained that end-stage organ disease patients provide a biopsy, which is transformed into induced pluripotent stem cells matching the patient's DNA, then redifferentiated into various cell types and streamed into a bioprinted collagen scaffold. The process takes two to three months per organ, and the finished organ must be transplanted within hours, delivered by an EHang manufactured organ transport helicopter. Rothblatt recalled her 2011 speech inspired by JFK's moon speech, in which she predicted a manufactured lung transplant by 2020. She noted that by 2018, the goal was accomplished ahead of schedule, with dozens of patients successfully treated. She highlighted Heather Leverington, a former college shot put champion with pulmonary hypertension, who won a gold medal at the US Transplant Games with manufactured lungs and received the first UT Champion Award.

Key takeaways

  1. United Therapeutics manufactures personalized lungs using 3D bioprinters and patient-derived stem cells, with no need for immunosuppressants.
  2. Rothblatt's 2011 goal of transplanting a manufactured lung by 2020 was achieved ahead of schedule, with dozens of patients treated by 2018.
  3. Heather Leverington, a patient with manufactured lungs, won a gold medal in shot put at the US Transplant Games and received the first UT Champion Award.
  4. Organ transport will use EHang manufactured organ transport helicopters to deliver organs to surgeons' operating rooms.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
2011 year of Rothblatt's speech predicting manufactured lung transplant timeline 4:09
2018 year when goal was accomplished with dozens of patients treated timeline 4:09

Chapters

  1. 0:00Manufacturing process for personalized lungs
  2. 4:092011 goal and achievement by 2018
  3. 5:42Heather Leverington's story and award
  4. 8:11Future vision for eternal life
Martine Rothblatt 2:30 ↗
3D bioprinters at United Therapeutics' de-organ manufacturing center in Manchester, New Hampshire, print the inert collagen scaffold of a lung from its larger proximal vessels and bronchi to its millions of distal arterials. End-stage organ disease patients give up a few cells in a biopsy, which will be transformed into inducible pluripotent stem cells, all matching the patient's DNA to avoid any need for immunosuppressants. It was just in the past decade that science has learned how to turn differentiated human cells back into stem cells. Thereafter, the newly made stem cells can be redifferentiated back into a wide variety of different types of cells. In our manufacturing laboratories, we will redifferentiate newly made stem cells from a patient into endothelial, epithelial, muscle, and connective tissue cells that match the patient's DNA. After expanding the numbers of these differentiated cells into the tens of billions needed to cellularize each organ, we stream them into the previously bioprinted scaffold. The entire process of cell expansion and recellularization via streaming takes about two to three months per organ. At the end of the process, there is a newly manufactured personalized organ that matches the DNA of the intended patient. Once removed from its bioreactor, the organ needs to be transplanted within hours. A transplant cart will be loaded onto an EHang manufactured organ transport helicopter, or MOFT, for delivery to the surgeon's operating room.
In 2011, at our Kinara, I gave a speech inspired by JFK's 1960s moon speech. He had said back then that before his decade was out, the US would land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth. Fifty years later, in 2011, I said that before this 201 decade was out, we would transplant an end-stage lung disease patient with a manufactured lung and return them safely back to health. At the time, we were about as close to that goal as the US was to the moon goal when Kennedy gave a speech, which was far, far away. John Glenn had barely orbited the Earth for the first time, and rockets often failed on launch. Now, seven years later, in 2018, I can hardly believe that not only did we accomplish our goal ahead of schedule and not just once or twice like the 1960s Apollo program, but that we have used our manufactured lungs to bring many dozens of end-stage lung disease patients safely back to health.
Now, as remarkable as this is, and I swear to God, I pinch myself every day that we're doing this. If someone told me back in 2011 that not only would we accomplish our goal and not only once but dozens of times, but that our manufactured lungs would work so well that a patient with a pair of them would actually win a gold medal in the shot put at the US Transplant Games, I'd say like, no way. I mean, that's insane. But in fact, that is actually what happened. And now it is my great honor to invite up to the stage Heather Leverington.
May I hold your hand? Thanks. Heather is a former college shot put champion who later found herself diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, just like our daughter Genesis. Heather, it is my great honor to give you the first UT Champion Award for your heroism in battling lung disease, your courage in accepting our manufactured lungs, and your sportsmanship and victory at this year's US Transplant Games.
And I'll explore how science is trying to capture the soul. I hope to be full and human someday, to bring eternal life to this life.

Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Rothblatt, M. (2026, May 26). ISDC 2019 ISDC - Martine Rothblatt (June 2019) J [Interview transcript]. Perennial Innovator: Dr. Martine Rothblatt. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/948992/

MLA

Martine Rothblatt. "ISDC 2019 ISDC - Martine Rothblatt (June 2019) J." Perennial Innovator: Dr. Martine Rothblatt, 26 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/948992/.

BibTeX 
@misc{rothblatt2026_948992,
  author       = {Martine Rothblatt},
  title        = {ISDC 2019 ISDC - Martine Rothblatt (June 2019) J},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Perennial Innovator: Dr. Martine Rothblatt. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {may},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/948992/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}