US medical scientists develop artificial kidney
A device known as the Artificial Kidney has been recently developed by the duo researcher, William Fissel and Shuvo Roy from Vanderbilt University and University of California respectively.
With over 100 thousand people awaiting a kidney transplant in the United States, this device – that uses living kidney cells alongside a specialized microchip powered by the heart to perform the actions of a healthy kidney – will be able to address the shortage of kidney donations in the United States.
Fissel said in a recent article published by Research News Vanderbilt, “We can leverage Mother Nature’s 60 million years of research and development and use kidney cells that fortunately for us grow well in the lab dish and grow them into a bioreactor of living cells.”
The artificial kidney which requires just a common surgery to be inserted into the body can reliably distinguish between body’s waste chemicals and nutrients that the body needs.
The man-made kidney is believed to work better than dialysis and to provide much more permanent solution for patients than dialysis.
It may also provide a longer term and more effective solution than a real kidney transplant.
Presently, engineers are working to test every aspect of the device to ensure its efficacy and safety before human trials begins.
If the device is found effective, it will eliminate the need for dialysis, solve the organ shortage problem and as well as save the national health care the numerous funds spent on dialysis
