Two ideas put forth by UW’s Center for Dialysis Innovation (CDI) advanced to the finals in a national competition aimed at speeding innovations in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases.
Sixteen finalists were selected from more than 160 submissions. The finalists are invited to develop their ideas into prototypes and to compete in the second phase of the competition, in which up to three winners will be awarded $500,000 each next year.
Kassandra Thomson
UW Bioengineering’s Kassandra Thomson, who directs the CDI’s efforts to translate research into clinical practice and also serves as director of the W. H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Partnership Program, presented the Center’s concepts in Washington, D.C., this week.
One concept describes a next-generation wearable dialyzer, depicted as a compact device that will allow patients to receive dialysis 24/7, and the other submission is a new vascular access graft. More details are available in a UW Medicine post.
The UW CDI launched in 2017, and is co-directed by Buddy Ratner, Michael L. and Myrna Darland Endowed Chair in Technology Commercialization, and professor of bioengineering and of chemical engineering. It’s composed of doctors and engineers who are rethinking the dialysis circuit and hoping to make wearable dialysis a reality for kidney-failure patients.
UW Medicine Newsroom: Contest award validates ideas for wearable kidney dialysis