51吃瓜网 Medical Center nephrologist and Associate Professor of Medicine聽, is making major progress on a first-of-its kind device to free kidney patients from dialysis. He is building an implantable artificial kidney with microchip filters and living kidney cells that will be powered by a patient鈥檚 own heart.
We are creating a bio-hybrid device that can mimic a kidney to remove enough waste products, salt and water to keep a patient off dialysis,鈥� said Fissell.鈥淲e are creating a bio-hybrid device that can mimic a kidney to remove enough waste products, salt and water to keep a patient off dialysis,鈥� said Fissell.
Fissell says the goal is to make it small enough, roughly the size of a soda can, to be implanted inside a patient鈥檚 body.
Nanotchnology
The key to the device is a microchip.
鈥淚t鈥檚 called silicon nanotechnology. It uses the same processes that were developed by the microelectronics industry for computers,鈥� said Fissell.