Source : University of California San Francisco
According to kidney.org, kidney disease causes more deaths than breast or prostate cancer, affecting an approximately 37 million people in U.S. or 15% of the adult population; more than 1 in 7 adults.
Although kidney transplants are possible, there’s always more demand than can be met and the risk that patient’s body might reject the organ, is always a possibility. Dialysis remains the most viable option, but the process is complicated & burdensome for the patients.
Now, a public-private partnership between U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and American Society of Nephrology (ASN) founded to “accelerate wrinkle in the precluding, verdict & treatment of kidney diseases” may have come-up with a solution, according to a press release by University of California San Francisco.
Called Kidney Project, new invention is an implantable bio-artificial kidney and it just earned a $650,000 prize from KidneyX for its first ever demonstration of its functional prototype.
“The vision for artificial kidney is to provide patients with complete mobility & better physiological outcomes than dialysis,” said Roy, who’s a faculty member in Department of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences, a joint department of UCSF School of Pharmacy & Medicine. “It promises a much higher quality of life for millions worldwide with kidney failure.”
What is So Special about an Artificial Kidney?
The device was designed to sustainably support a culture of human kidney cells without provoking an immune response.
This means, kidney failure patients can for-go often painful & uncomfortable dialysis procedures and duration on immune-suppressant drugs that are taken when a kidney transplant is performed and can have severe side effects.
The KidneyX Artificial Kidney Prize, called on scientists & engineers to submit “continuous kidney replacement therapies that give transformational treatment options beyond current dialysis methods. “
