A research project is underway to create a small, implanted, and free-standing bio-artificial kidney to treat End Stage Renal Disease. The artificial kidney will offer a new treatment option beyond the short-term solution of dialysis and the longer-term solution of a kidney transplant for which donor organs are limited.
The bio-artificial kidney is also expected to save national health care dollars. The 1% of the Medicare population with ESRD exceeds 600,000 people and the associated costs account for 7% of the $29 billion overall Medicare budget.
The Kidney Project is comprised of a research team of scientists, engineers and clinicians from across the United States. Its home base is the University of California, San Francisco, and the Project is led by Shuvo Roy, PhD, a bioengineer and professor in the University’s Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, and co-directed by William Fissell, MD, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The bio-artificial kidney is currently in Phase 2 animal studies, with a projected cost of $3 million per year. The goal is to bring the artificial kidney to in-human testing trials by 2017.