17/09/2024
Seattle University’s Groundbreaking Portable Artificial Kidney Could Transform Dialysis
Patients suffering from kidney failure often have to spend hours each week hooked up to dialysis machines to survive. However, a new invention being developed at Seattle University aims to change that. With over 600,000 people in the U.S. requiring dialysis, this innovative project could significantly improve their quality of life.
Dr. Shen Ren, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Seattle University, specializes in heat transfer, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics. While these areas are his expertise, his current research focuses on something entirely different—one of the body’s most vital organs, the kidney.
"This is an artificial kidney," says Dr. Ren. While it may not resemble a kidney, his vision is for it to function just like one. "Imagine a portable artificial kidney, a dialysis system you can take with you. That means patients could perform dialysis anywhere they go."
Dr. Ren is collaborating with the University of Washington’s Center for Dialysis Innovation (CDI) and the Northwest Kidney Centers to bring this vision to life. The team is working to develop a device about the size of a backpack. Since 2017, Dr. Ren has worked with CDI to redesign the traditional dialysis machine—typically confined to a clinic—into a portable version that patients can carry with them, offering a new level of freedom and a vastly improved quality of life.
"This could change the lives of millions of people around the world," Dr. Ren emphasized.
One of those people is Becca Chong, who was diagnosed with Alport syndrome in her twenties, leading to kidney failure. "It was incredibly burdensome," Chong recalls. "I was 25, with my whole life ahead of me. While my friends were out enjoying life, I had to structure my entire day around a dialysis machine."
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