ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY (Nanotechnology)
- The first phase of the project focused on developing the technologies required to reduce the device to a size that could fit into the body and testing the individual components in animal models.
- the second and current phase, the team is doing the sophisticated work needed to scale up the device for humans.
- Scientists at UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) with nine other labs are working on an artificial kidney that can allow patients to live without.
- The two-stage system uses a hemofilter to remove toxins from the blood, while applying recent advances in tissue engineering to grow renal tubule cells to provide other biological functions of a healthy kidney.
HOW IT WORKS?
|