Pairing came naturally to Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon, and his wife Sommer Gentry, a mathematician. After meeting in 1999 at a swing-dance competition in Stamford, Conn., the couple became dance partners and went on to win British lindy-hop competitions before getting hitched in 2003. Last year the duo partnered to devise a system that could save hundreds of lives a year by more efficiently matching kidney donors with the 62,000-plus Americans waiting for a transplant.
More than 3,000 people die each year waiting for a kidney. Although many patients have loved ones who are willing to donate a kidney, incompatible...