Implantable Artificial Kidney Project Making Progress

The implantable artificial kidney is being developed jointly by the University of California San Francisco and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Nephrology News & Issues is not involved in the development of the device and cannot help anyone become a participant in a clinical trial.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center nephrologist and associate professor of medicine William H. Fissell IV, MD, is making major progress on an implantable artificial kidney. The device uses microchip filters and living kidney cells that will be powered by a patient’s own heart.

“We are creating a bio-hybrid device that can mimic a kidney to remove enough waste products, salt and water to keep a patient off dialysis,” said Fissell. Fissell says the goal is to make it small enough, roughly the size of a soda can, to be implanted inside a patient’s body.

The key to the implantable artificial kidney is a microchip, Fissell said.“It’s called silicon nanotechnology. It uses the same processes that were developed by the microelectronics industry for computers,” said Fissell.

more about this please visit :

http://www.nephrologynews.com/implantable-artificial-kidney-project-making-progress/