When kidney transplant patients at the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute celebrate their first year after transplant, they ring a bell. The bright tone of the “Bell of New Beginnings” resonates throughout the clinic, marking the first anniversary of a journey toward a new chance at life.

On September 30, 2021, a University of Alabama at Birmingham medical team transplanted two pig kidneys into a brain-dead human recipient, a major step toward future pig-kidney transplants to people with kidney failure.