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The Kidney Project successfully tests a prototype bioartificial kidney
- hkt 5y agoWe're entering the age of viable artificial organs. I'll take that over flying cars. Amazing work.
- hutzlibu 5y agoArtificial hearts already work since quite a while. It is amazing, but real organs can sustain themself - artificial mechanical ones not. And need surgery for replacement. I have my hopes on artificial real organs and see the mechanical ones as a intermediate solution.
- akoluthic 5y agoA miraculous breakthrough could be on two fronts: artificial "meat organs" for those whose life is at immediate risk and need a transplant, and regenerative biotech/medicine to repair those with damage without requiring surgery. Either way, implanted devices can be a good bridge from our current situation.
- esturk 5y agoAnd they are. One of the other 6 finalists were doing "Genetically-engineered pig kidney xenotransplantation". The idea is to "Genetically engineered pig kidneys that will increase the supply of transplantable organs by eliminating the antibody barrier to xenotransplantation."
- kiba 5y agoI would like a backup heart, but not sure if it makes sense from an engineering standpoint.
- bobmaxup 5y agoFor sudden cardiac death? Isn't that mostly caused by arrhythmia? So a prophylactic pacemaker maybe? Isn't that already a thing?
- krageon 5y agoThe threat model could be a freak heart stabbing. In which case a backup heart somewhere else (and some truly earthshattering breakthroughs in fast clotting) might make sense.
- saalweachter 5y agoMy dream technology would be a way to make my body just ... stop, if Something Bad happened, like all my blood falling out, until someone stumbled upon my non-rotting corpse, patched the holes, and filled it back up. It's such bullshit that if I stop living for even a little bit my body melts into useless slag like an engine running without oil.
- kiba 5y agoI imagined damage to the heart muscles or blocked blood vessel.
- MayeulC 5y ago> Artificial hearts already work since quite a while Frankly I wouldn't want one for $1B. IIRC the longest recorded survival with an artificial rate was about 3 months for a continuous flow 'pulse-less' device https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_heart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_heart So yeah, they "work", but are still far from perfect.
- hutzlibu 5y agoOh. I assumed they performed better by now. So basically getting a artificial heart as a replacement right now, means taking part in developing science and medicine, but not really realistically with any hopes of living on.
- greatpatton 5y agoSeems that the article is a bit outdated. Carmat total artificial heart already had patient with at least 20 months of survival (it is currently used as a bridge until transplantation). * https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/entreprises/services/carmat-un-patient-a-deja-vecu-plus-de-20-mois-avec-un-coeur-artificiel_AV-201910290241.html https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/entreprises/services/carmat-u... (20 months in French) https://www.carmatsa.com/en/news/carmat-feedback-6-years-8-months-cumulative-support-shows-constant-improvement-clinical-outcomes-patients-pivotal-study/ https://www.carmatsa.com/en/news/carmat-feedback-6-years-8-m... (latest study results)
- the-dude 5y agoIn a preclinical model. Whatever that is, maybe it is a mouse after all?
- tapan_jk 5y agoThis is one of those things that you are hopeful it exists, but you also pray that people won't need.
- dsign 5y agoThe big problem being that prayer doesn't work.
- wizzwizz4 5y agoIf prayer stops people forgetting about the problems of the world, I'd say it does.
- Jeff_Brown 5y agoReligión is considered by the common people to be true, by the wise to be false, and by the rulers to be useful. --Seneca
- Jeff_Brown 5y ago(In fact that's too cynical on Seneca's part. Religión is useful for, one imagines, the majority of it's member's, who gain among other things social connection and a safety net from it.)
- silicon2401 5y agoThis is a generalization. Go on /r/exmuslim, /r/exjw, and /r/exmormon on reddit to find countless stories of people from whom religion provides quite the opposite of a safety net. If often as not creates a source of fear, emotional and physical danger, ostracization, and shunning. Not to mention extreme cases like honor killings. You may as well say North Korea gives you a safety net and community (as long as you ignore the ways that it doesn't).
- Jeff_Brown 5y ago
- hutzlibu 5y agoThat looks interesting, but the linked article is a bit short on details, but high on praise. For example I would like to know, if the goal is, to actually put this inside of people? Currently it is smartphone sized. That might work, but only if the person moves not much, because it does not seem flexible. And having a stiff smartphone in your body would mean moving like a old school robot. That still might beat the alternative, but would be a serious limitation. Maybe they get it smaller and more flexible - then I would be curious how long the bioreactor and hemofilter lasts, before they need replacement? Because that means dangerous surgery. So the first versions would be probably carried outside the body and connected to your arteries?
- lifeisstillgood 5y agoYou know, I have never actually considered this aspect of "cyborg-life". Given how much I slouch at desks all day, yeh, a life saving kidney digging in my ribs would get annoying ! I suspect it would just be an internal version of the parental "stop slouching dear". Users might report better backs as well as kidneys ! And just to be clear, Science and medicine makes amazing advances each day and decade. I am astonished by the idea this even is close to working.
- hutzlibu 5y ago" Users might report better backs as well as kidneys !" I doubt that. A healthy back needs twisting and bending in all directions.
- saalweachter 5y agoI'm really having to rein in my SWE-desire to start pitching "what if we just" fixes to this thread.
- White_Wolf 5y agowhen you're in the situation where you need a kidney replacement uncomfortable positions are the least of your worries. Like you said: I'm amazed by the fact that were close to having a replacement. Not sure how many will be able to afford it but still. It's one step forward.
- whitecrow90 5y agoi really hope they make it a reality, so many ppl need this, and will be such a major change in everyday life for them
- ambar123 5y agoWhere is Lever....???
- Jeff_Brown 5y agoCould it not be kept outside the body?
- pak 5y agoThe major benefit to implanting it under the skin, as we do with pacemakers, is that doing without permanent holes or tubes through the skin reduces infection risk. Consider also the danger of having something dangling from your body that is powered by your arterial blood pressure (from a major artery, as the kidney is). A trip and fall could be instantly fatal.
- jdavis703 5y agoI had a kidney stent in for a few days while I healed from an operation. Let me tell you, it’s a huge quality of life downer (obviously the medical operation outweighed the life style concern). You definitely don’t want medical equipment dangling on the outside of your body if you can help it.
- saalweachter 5y agoAs someone who already stubs every stubable body part, I don't need new ones to bash into things.
- varshithr 5y agoThere is a lot of malpractice in developing countries like China & India wrt black market kidney trade. I wish this becomes mainstream.
- random314 5y ago650K USD investment is so little for something so important! Meanwhile, I just read that a recruiting startup raised 100M $ in investment.
- therein 5y agoThere is no issue that is too expensive for humanity. If the COVID hysteria has shown us anything, it is that we could have made ANYTHING a global priority. Hunger in Africa, no problem. Homelessness or global poverty, could have easily brainwashed the public into rallying behind that cause. It was just a matter of choice. All our problems are allowed to become that by our useless rulers. And I'm not talking about the ones we "elect", but the ones that have their own different priorities. They only care about their eugenicist fervor.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- DantesKite 5y agoA disease that spreads like Covid but basically destroys your kidneys would probably lead to greater funding for kidney research. True.
- Jensson 5y agoOr imagine if the world just went together to try to build fusion reactors. Spending on ITER is 2 billion a year, why not 20 billion a year? We would probably learn a ton about different ways to do it and maybe innovate stuff, maybe we would have already solved the global energy crisis if we had a 20 billion budget for it 10 years ago? Or even better, imagine if instead of spending hundreds of millions to make ads that just serves to make people spend more on consumption, maybe that could be used to make reactors? People would go into research for the money, they would train hard to get the best reactor jobs, it would be the hot new market! All that could be reality, but no, society says "ads are more important, without ads people might forget to spend their money and that would be a tragedy!".
- 5y ago
- speby 5y agoWhile progress in this field has been slow, it's worth saying that if this technology continues to proceed towards success, this is not just a life-saver but a game-changer for humanity.
- bborud 5y agoAs someone who has gone through a kidney transplant, this is actually a bit depressing since progress in this field is painfully slow. I have seen these articles pop up at regular intervals for a decade now, and if we're going to be honest: nothing much has happened during that decade. This is still an under-funded area where nothing more than "pre-clinical" prototypes keep getting press - and then nothing. I used to be active on various forums for kidney patients (one of which had more than 27.000 members last I checked). I'm not very active anymore because it is too depressing to read about people who are less fortunate than me (I have good health, live in a country with socialized medicine and my total cost per year for keeping the transplanted healthy is less than $300). For instance non-affluent people living in the US. I've lost count of how many americans I've known who have ended up in a place where taking their own life seems like the best option. Either because they are tired of finding money for the medications that keep them alive, tired of navigating bureaucracy, because they don't want to drag their entire family into a financial hole, or because they are just physically exhausted. (Dialysis is time-consuming and slowly ruins your body) Take some time to think about that. Think about what it means that every so many months someone on a forum you frequent tells you "I've had it - I'm going to give up and die". It can be quite taxing if you allow yourself to care. So excuse me for being negative, but this isn't anything to be excited about. This is just a reminder that nothing much that actually has any impact is happening in this area. Please take some time to review the national statistics for the US and please consider becoming an organ donor. https://www.organdonor.gov/learn/organ-donation-statistics https://www.organdonor.gov/learn/organ-donation-statistics
- nikkwong 5y agoThat’s awesome to hear that youve gotten a transplant and are still in good health. I suspect that you didn’t need one because of CKD caused by diabetes/blood pressure?
- bborud 5y agoProbably high blood pressure for 15+ years, but at the point where this was discovered it was impossible to know for sure if it was the primary reason or a consequence of kidney failure. Fortunately, the blood pressure turned out to be easy to manage with medication. And after the transplant, things have gone exceptionally well and I live a completely normal lifet. I just need to down a fistful of pills every day :-)
- black_13 5y agoI read this and think of Philip K Dicks novel “the penultimate truth” they will be very expensive. Real problems like just inexpensive preventative care goes wanting.
- wonderwonder 5y agoHow long does it last once implanted? Seems a little scarce on details, not sure if its a permanent fix or just supposed to keep you going until a transplant is found. Is it a replacement or a stop gap?