Shuvo Roy, Ph.D., a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic, has been awarded a $3.2 million, three-year grant today by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering which will be used to develop a bio-artificial kidney that can be used instead of dialysis.

Dr. Roy and his team of researchers are currently using MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) technology to create an implantable, self-regulating bio-artificial kidney which will be able to filter toxins and absorb necessary salts and water like human kidneys.

Included on the team that is developing this bio-artificial kidney are physicians and engineers from the Lerner Research Insitute's Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Nephrology.

Martin Schreiber, M.D., Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, said that the grant willhelp to further one of the Cleveland Clinics key missions:

"This award fulfills the first step in developing innovative technology platforms which offer new hope for extending survival in patients with kidney failure,” he said. “Innovation is one of the hallmarks of the Cleveland Clinic and this project continues that tradition.”

In the U.S., more than 50 million dialysis procedures are performed annually. And while kidney transplant remains the treatment of choice, it is severely limited by the scarcity of donor organs. Only 25% of patients on the waiting list for a kidney transplant survive long enough to receive one. The implantable bio-artificial kidney that Dr. Roy and his team are working on could substitute for kidney transplantation, thus giving hope to hundreds of thousands of patients who are currently tethered to multiple times weekly treatments at dialysis centers.

The grant received by Dr. Roy is just one of four awarded by the NIBIB's Quantum Grants program.