Artificial kidney by US Indian researcher awaits human trial
A COFFEE CUP sized implantable artificial kidney being developed by a US researcher of Indian origin, is awaiting animal and human trials to bring affordable treatment to millions of kidney failure patients worldwide.
Shuvo Roy, working with a team of engineers, biologists and physicians at the University of California, San Francisco, to shrink the device to the size of a coffee cup, is “excited about advancing it towards large animal and human trials”.
“Obviously, a key requirement is financial support and the team. We have most of the latter in place, and the former is a work-in-progress,” Prof. Roy, an associate professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy who specialises in developing micro-electromechanical systems technology for biomedical applications said. “There are almost 1.5 million people worldwide on dialysis. The primary cause of end stage renal disease is diabetes and hypertension, which are both growing problems in South Asia,” noted Prof. Roy who has a connection with both India and Bangladesh.
Born in what is now Bangladesh, Prof. Roy spent part of his childhood in India and Bangladesh and received most of his education in Uganda, where his father worked as a public health physician. He later obtained his undergraduate degree from Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio.
“As it turns out, most of my father’s family is in India, while most of my mother’s side is in Bangladesh,” he said.
The ideal treatment for kidney failure patients is transplant, but there is a shortage and the patients require expensive drugs and dialysis costs $9,000-14,000 per patient in India assuming dialysis twice a week.
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