Dr. Amira Abdelrasoul, an associate professor in USask’s College of Engineering has the long-term goal to create an artificial wearable kidney that would improve the quality of life and survival rate of kidney patients.

In working towards that goal, she has identified a key protein that creates big problems for kidney patients’ when membranes used to cleanse their blood in hemodialysis leads to further health complications and even death.

Researchers used the Biomedical Imaging and Therapy beamline at USask’s Canadian Light Source to visualize what occurs when proteins come in contact with a hemodialysis membrane.

Dr. Abdelrasoul says when blood interacts with the membrane, blood protein routinely gets absorbed on the surface of the membrane and provokes a chain of unwanted biochemical reactions.

Now that the protein has been identified she plans to use that information to develop a new type of membrane that is more compatible with the body.

Chronic kidney disease has no cure and progresses until the organ eventually fails. A new release from USask states that while about 43 per cent of patients receive a kidney transplant, donated organs are in short supply and some patients aren’t good candidates so the remaining 57 per cent rely on hemodialysis.

One out of 10 Canadians, or about four million people, have kidney disease. Nearly half of new patients are under age 65.