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.