CeFEMA strategy on Artificial Organs is to develop a portable artificial kidney (PAK) and a novel membrane blood oxygenator (MBO). The recent US Kidney Innovation Accelerator program endorses dialysis breakthroughs that increase life quality and reduce conventional therapy costs and suggests higher frequency hemodialysis. CeFEMA aims at: 1) Developing a PAK to function continuously providing efficient toxin clearance in a more physiological compensation of kidney failure than current short and intense treatments. Approaches envisioned: a blood purification membrane device that for the 1st time, applies microfluidic and ultrafiltration to therapeutic medicine and a hemodialyser with functionalized asymmetric membranes that mimic the glomerular capillary wall; 2) Design an MBO with asymmetric membranes and electrospun fibres at the membrane/blood interface as mixing promoters/diffusive layer disruptors for optimal flow and mass transfer compatible with limitations of shear stresses imposed in blood circulation.
CeFEMA further fosters the production of key biomaterials with superior bioproperties from biogenic calcium sources, and of dental ceramics materials and products.
