Silicon Isn’t Just For Computers. It Can Make a Pretty Good Kidney, Too.

In an in-depth look at the state of artificial kidneys, WIRED's Megan Molteni highlighted Shuvo Roy and William Fissell, the leaders behind UC San Francisco's The Kidney Project, and their leading research to develop a small, bioartificial kidney to treat end-stage renal disease.

Megan chronicled the team's journey, including the leap from just improving existing systems to innovating a new treatment altogether: "As he and Fissell looked around them at the advances being made in live tissue engineering, they started thinking beyond a better, smaller, faster filter. 'We thought, if people are growing ears on the backs of mice, why can't we grow a kidney?'" Since 2000, Roy and his team have created a device that would be surgically implanted in patients' abdomens, a huge leap forward for the research on treatment of this disease.

"An implantable kidney would dramatically improve [patients'] quality of life and be a welcome innovation after so many years of treatment status quo," Molteni wrote, highlighting the cumbersome and expensive external dialysis treatment that is currently standard for ESRD.

For the full story on artificial kidneys and the next steps for The Kidney Project’s exciting bioartificial, read the full piece here.