Artificial kidney project receives new funding

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has announced that the Kidney Project has received new funding from the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which totals $3 million. The Kidney Project aims to crate the first implantable artificial kidney for patients with kidney failure.

“Kidney failure takes a terrible toll on the world, both economically and in human suffering,” said Shuvo Roy, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy and leader of the Kidney Project through the UCSF Department of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences. “These funds are a critical step in helping us move this project forward more quickly and ultimately bring real solutions to patients throughout the world.”

Researchers in nine institutions in the U.S. are being coordinated by Dr Roy and the project’s medical director, William Fissell, M.D., of Vanderbilt University. The research focuses on developing an implantable device that aims to mimic the filtration functions of a kidney, as well as its ability to maintain water and salt balances, produce Vitamin D, and regulate blood pressure and pH.