Microchip technology powers innovative bio-hybrid artificial kidney

US researchers have developed a new implantable artificial kidney with microchip filters and living kidney cells that can help keep patients off dialysis.

The device utilises silicon nanotechnology to create affordable and precise chips that play a key role in filtering, while also acting as the scaffold in which the living kidney cells will rest. In doing so, the natural action of the kidney can be replicated.

It will be able to re-absorb important nutrients and discard waste, while sitting out of reach of the body's immune response, meaning it is protected from rejection. It is also powered by a patient's own heart, and operates naturally with their blood flow.

A long list of dialysis patients who are keen to join a future human trial has already been compiled, with pilot studies of the silicon filters set to start by the end of 2017.

Study leader Dr William Fissell, a nephrologist and associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said: "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."