Artificial Kidney News

Investigators have transplanted kidney tissue made from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into a mouse kidney, and they found that the animal’s blood vessels readily connect to the human tissue. The advance, which marks an important step towards creating a urine-producing kidney through regenerative medicine, is described in a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

The wearable artificial kidney has passed the first FDA-approved proof-of-concept trial, Victor Gura, MD, FASN and other researchers announced at the American Society of Nephrology’s Kidney Week 2015. The device was developed by Gura, from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The present prototype of the WAK is a 10-pound device, powered by nine-volt batteries and worn around the waist.

Research on nanofilter technology was presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 as part of the development of a surgically implantable, artificial kidney.

The wearable artificial kidney has passed the first FDA-approved proof-of-concept trial, Victor Gura, MD, FASN and other researchers announced at the American Society of Nephrology's Kidney Week 2015. The device was developed by Gura, from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The present prototype of the WAK is a 10-pound device, powered by nine-volt batteries and worn around the waist.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a four-year, $6 million grant to investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) to develop an implantable artificial kidney.

Japanese scientists have successfully grown stem-cell generated kidneys that can excrete urine in pigs and rats, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States, or PNAS. Previous attempts at urine excretion in stem-cell generated kidneys had failed.

Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center are working to build replacement kidneys in the lab, and have reported new findings in two recent studies. The team's goal is to make use of the more than 2,600 kidneys that are donated each year, but must be discarded due to abnormalities and other factors. The scientists aim to “recycle” these organs to engineer tailor-made replacement kidneys for patients.

The Wearable Artificial Kidney (WAK), invented by nephrologist Victor Gura, MD, FASN, from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been involved in laboratory and clinical testing since 2001 by medical clinicians, bio medical engineers, and other medical device researchers. The present prototype of the WAK is a 10-pound device, powered by nine-volt batteries and worn around the waist. It is manufactured by Blood Purification Technologies, based in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Regenerative medicine researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have addressed a major challenge in the quest to build replacement kidneys in the lab. Working with human-sized pig kidneys, the scientists developed the most successful method to date to keep blood vessels in the new organs open and flowing with blood. The work is reported in the journal Technology.

Update: The wearable artificial kidney has passed the first FDA-approved proof-of-concept trial, Victor Gura, MD, FASN and other researchers announced at the American Society of Nephrology’s Kidney Week 2015. Read more about the trial.