The device, which would include thousands of microscopic filters as well as a bioreactor to mimic the metabolic and water-balancing roles of a real kidney[...]

The treatment has been proven to work for the sickest patients using a room-sized external model developed by a team member in Michigan. Roy’s goal is to apply silicon fabrication technology, along with specially engineered compartments for live kidney cells, to shrink that large-scale technology into a device the size of a coffee cup. The device would then be implanted in the body without the need for immune suppressant medications, allowing the patient to live a more normal life.

The researchers hope to begin clinical trials in five to seven years.

Link via Gizmodo | Image: UCSF

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee of Discover write an intriguing story about the black market of organs and the fall of the Kidney Kingpin:

The mastermind, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged, was Amit Kumar—a man who performed the surgeries with no more formal training than a degree in ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine. In a career spanning two decades, Kumar had established one of the world’s largest kidney trafficking rings, with a supply chain that extended deep into the Indian countryside. Some of his clients were from India. Many came from Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Canada, and the United States.

At parties in India and abroad, Kumar introduced himself as one of India’s foremost kidney surgeons, said Rajiv Dwivedi, a CBI investigator based in Delhi. The claim wasn’t entirely illegitimate: Investigators estimate that Kumar has performed hundreds of successful transplants, a practice so lucrative that he was able to finance Bollywood movies and had to fend off extortion threats from the Mumbai mafia. Two weeks after the police crackdown in Gurgaon, Kumar was arrested at a wildlife resort in Nepal and brought back to India, where he now awaits trial.

Link – via 3quarksdaily

So, Friday morning, surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital will remove one of Coyne’s healthy kidneys and transplant it to de la Vega, a 49-year-old Filipino immigrant and mother of two who was diagnosed with renal failure three years ago and has continued to work even as she’s undergone dialysis ever since.

The transplant “will give me another 25 or 30 years of life,” de la Vega, clearly still astounded by her customer’s generosity, said Tuesday as she sat with Coyne at Pershing East Magnet School, 3113 S. Rhodes, where he works. “It’s unbelievable: a complete stranger offering his kidney to me.”

Coyne is a social worker at the school. His principal declared Tuesday as “Dan Coyne Day” at the school. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)

The doctor claims his wife began having an affair sometime after the transplant.

“We were in a million-dollar home, I was a full-time surgeon, full-time father and a dedicated husband. And I saved her life, and there’s nothing bad about what I did, I’d do it again. But the pain is unbearable,” the doctor said.

The unnamed doctor will, however, settle for $1.5 million. Link -Thanks, Gigi1!

Update: Here’s a link with more information on the story.