PKD Life - Spring 2020 - 23

The artificial
kidney developed
by Drs. William
Fissell (top) and
Shuvo Roy doesn't
require batteries or
electrical wires.

who is now a professor in the
Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences
at the University of California
San Francisco. At the time,
Dr. Roy says, he knew very
little about kidney disease
or dialysis.

BEYOND A BAND-AID

The two initially talked
about making a better
dialysis machine, Dr. Roy
says, "but that would be like
making a better Band-Aid."
So the discussion shifted
to how to make a machine
that performed like a
healthy kidney.

And thus was born The
Kidney Project, a multidisciplinary team of engineers,
physicians, and manufacturing experts from universities
around the country, led by
Drs. Fissell and Roy, who are
all dedicated to developing a
device smaller than a coffee
cup that can mimic the function of a healthy kidney.
"Is it going to be as good
as a real kidney? Never," Dr.
Fissell says. "That's not a reasonable goal; that's been an
excuse to not do the work."
The device has two parts:
a hemofilter, which uses
semiconductor silicon

nanotechnology to create a
highly efficient and compact
membrane that filters salts,
electrolytes, and toxins from the
blood, and a bioreactor, composed of renal tubule cells, that
reabsorbs salt and water from
the ultrafiltrate but maintains
a barrier to toxins. The device
will be surgically implanted
in the abdominal wall blood
vessels and connected to the
bladder to drain urine. It relies
on a person's blood pressure to
move blood across the filter, so
it doesn't require batteries or
electrical wires.
Initial versions will use cells
from kidneys that couldn't be
used for transplant, Dr. Roy
says. The membrane technology negates the issue of
rejection. "It is engineered to
allow filtration but not allow
the passage of immune components that could cause the
rejection," Dr. Roy says. In the
future, stem cells might be
used. Another option is that
people with early stage kidney
disease could harvest some of
their own cells for later use.

LOOKING FORWARD

A major challenge in
bringing the device to market
is raising the money to
conduct research, Dr. Fissell
says. "We've had immense
support from private donors
and foundations who are
familiar with kidney disease,
and we're incredibly grateful
for that," he says. But it's
been an uphill battle to
obtain funding from industry
and the government, he
says, because The Kidney
Project is not developing
a drug or discovering
fundamental principles.
"We want to change the
lives of people with kidney
failure and open the door to
a far more normal life," Dr.
Fissell says. "The goal is that
in 20 years, we will think
about dialysis the way we
think today about an iron
lung. When's the last time
you saw an iron lung? We
have better interventions,
and it's not needed anymore. Dialysis should go to
the same place."

*

STUDIES ARE IN THE WORKS

The Kidney Project researchers plan to start the first clinical
trial this year to test the safety of the silicon material, then
begin additional clinical trials with the goal of Food and
Drug Administration approval in five years or less.

P K D C U R E .O R G

PKD_SP20_ResearchReport.indd 23

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3/24/20 4:33 PM
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PKD Life - Spring 2020

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