Top scientists in Kampen for kidney symposium

Researchers in the field of kidney dialysis have traveled to Kampen from all over the world. The Hanseatic city where doctor Willem Kolff developed the first dialysis machine. A lot has changed since then, as it turns out during the international meeting dedicated to artificial kidneys and kidney dialysis.

At the well-attended meeting in Kampen, kidney patient Patrick van Dorst also speaks. Since 2011 he has been living with a kidney from his father. But he does not expect to be able to do so for the rest of his life. "There comes a time when the kidney is rejected," says Van Dorst. Then he has to undergo another kidney transplant or dialysis several times a week.

Implantable artificial kidney

Like thousands of other kidney patients, Van Dorst has pinned his hopes on the arrival of the fully implantable artificial kidney. "It's not a question of if, but when that artificial kidney will be there," predicts professor Shuvo Roy. The biomedical scientist from San Francisco is one of the many foreign experts who have come to Kampen. Despite the strict security measures and all the fuss surrounding the NATO summit in The Hague.

It is not a question of if, but when that artificial kidney will be there

Wetenschapper Shuvo Roy

Roy: "The implantable artificial kidney is within reach, with all the knowledge and expertise we currently have." According to the professor from the United States, progress here also depends on the necessary finances. And we're talking about a lot of money.

A lot of money

"500 to 600 million euros are needed to have such an implantable artificial kidney by 2031," says Fokko Wieringa of research center Imec in Eindhoven and UMC Utrecht. Then everything has to go well, the researcher outlines. So no political opposition, but streamlined international cooperation. Those present in Kampen are sober enough to realize that the world is not like that.

Internist-nephrologist Karin Gerritsen of UMC Utrecht does not see the implantable artificial kidney coming in the coming decades. She focuses mainly on developments that are easier to realize, such as portable dialysis systems that patients can take with them. "So that the patient becomes more mobile and can, for example, take it with him on the plane."

Vital

So for the time being, there is no artificial kidney in a human being, although according to several scientists it is possible to develop one. If everything goes well. In any case, in the eighty years since the invention of the first dialysis machine, enormous progress has been made.

It was doctor Willem Kolff who built a huge drum in Kampen during the Second World War with which the blood of kidney patients could be purified. According to those present at the conference, his invention was of vital importance.

Normal life

Kidney patient Van Dorst was able to meet Willem Kolff, who died in America in 2009. He still finds that very special. And yes, of course he is very happy with his father's kidney. But if that transplanted kidney stops functioning properly, he hopes that specialists in the room will have made a lot of progress with the development of the implantable artificial kidney. "So that I can continue to live as a normal person."

Father of the artificial organs

Willem Kolff (1911 - 2009) is the inventor of the artificial kidney. In 1943, in the then city hospital in Kampen, he connected the terminally ill Janny Schrijver from Zwolle to an artificial kidney. The 29-year-old's kidneys barely work and she is unconscious when Kolff takes care of her. The treatment of the Zwolle kidney patient is a world first: Schrijver wakes up from her coma and is the first person to have lived with an artificial kidney.

Kolff is also the inventor of the artificial heart (1956) and was at the cradle of many organ replacement therapies. He is therefore regarded worldwide as the father of artificial organs and as one of the most important medical inventors of the twentieth century. During his career, he received thirteen honorary doctorates from universities around the world and 127 international awards.