A team of US nephrologists is developing first-of-its kind implantable artificial kidney with microchip filters and living kidney cells that will be powered by a patient's own heart to help kidney patients. Dr William H. Fissell IV, nephrologist and associate professor of medicine from Tennessee-based Vanderbilt University, is making major progress on a first-of-its kind device to free kidney patients from dialysis. "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," Fissell said. The goal is to make it small enough, roughly the size of a soda can, to be implanted inside a patient's body.
The key to the device is a microchip. "It's called silicon nanotechnology. It uses the same processes that were developed by the microelectronics industry for computers," Fissell explained. The chips are…
