Dr. Ren Xiaoping led a team from Harbin Medical University which carried out the world's first head transplant experiment.
Later, Italian professor Sergio Canavero claimed at a press conference in Vienna that the world's first human head transplantation has successfully been performed on a cadaver during an 18-hour operation in China.
However, Dr. Ren could not share the enthusiasm of his Italian colleague. The Daily Mail cited Ren as saying that his team wrapped up what he described as "the first surgical model for a head transplant" rather than an operation.
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Touting it as a "significant scientific breakthrough", Ren at the same time remained downbeat about a head transplant on a live human, saying that "there is a long way to go."
