IEEE Spectrum: Three Artificial Kidneys…
“Three ways to build an artificial kidney”
This IEEE Spectrum article list three efforts to make an artificial Kidney. The first is the AWAK, kidney on a belt. They don’t have the latest images for this, only the original very bulky design. The second is the Roy/Fissell implantable Renal Assist Device (iRAD). Both of these are discussed in my recent post on the ASAIO conference. The third is interesting in that it stems from the work done in Waterloo Canada using SiMPore membranes. They used human blood on the bench, pumped between two parallel chips with ‘dialysate’ flowing in the counter direction on both sides of the chips. All housed in a small teflon device.
The paper was reviewed in a previous post. They (Quidni Labs) seem to have gotten some funding and are working out of a San Francisco accelorator (IndiBio SF). This is 1.5 miles from where ASAIO held the conference and they had no presence, nor mention there at all. They say they have funding for porcine models so they seem pretty serious. They only have the one paper from 2013.