To create a Bioartificial Liver; a breakthrough in liver disease as important as dialysis was for kidney failure, which will save millions of lives worldwide.

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  • Health/Wellbeing Health/​Wellbeing
  • Medical Research Medical Research
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    Liver Disease itself is the 5th leading cause of death in the UK for under 65s and the 2nd commonest cause of death in middle aged UK men; gloablly the WHO estimates it leads to 1-2 million deaths a year. Whilst a liver transplant is an effective way of managing conditions that cause acute and chronic liver failure, only 2 in 3 people on the transplant list in the UK get a new liver in time; given that 80% of those with acute liver failure will die without a transplant this is a huge problem.

    The very nature of the liver provides us with an unique opportunity -given time it will regrow after acute damage. Thus, our solution - the bioartificial liver temporarily replaces liver function, giving the liver those critical few days necessary to heal. We have developed HepatiCan - a bioartificial liver machine used outside the body. The next steps are to take it to patients in clinical trials which will require considerable resource , including regulatory work and documentation.

    Categories

  • Health/Wellbeing Health/​Wellbeing
  • Medical Research Medical Research
  • Beneficiaries

    • Other Other