Shuvo Roy, PhD has created an implantable bioartificial kidney prototype, on a grant from the NIH's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). Dr. Roy is the technical director of The Kidney Project, headquartered at the UCSF School of Pharmacy. He is a bioengineer and faculty member in the School's Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences.
The National Institutes of Health has received a $6 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). NIH will coordinate with the United States Food and Drug Administration, in order to make “The Kidney Project” a success. The team has already begun testing a coffee-cup-sized device that replicates the human kidney function...
The medical device will be placed near the kidneys and connected internally to the patient’s blood supply and bladder. The kidneys will not be removed, but they will be bypassed.
This medical device will be a permanent solution for organ transplantation scarcity and to treat ESRD successfully. If you are currently suffering from kidney failure and receiving dialysis, you should definitely continue to follow up on the development of the Kidney Project. If the researchers are successful in this new development, thousands of Americans will see a future without dialysis treatment.
Fans of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick will remember the artif-orgs from his 1964 novel Cantata 140:
George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...
"...if they keep after me, or if they won't make a deal regarding artif-org construction - then it'll be necessary to do something.
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.' - Robert Heinlein, 1956
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Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'