The National Kidney Foundation is investing in kidney preservation technology

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Innovation Fund has announced it has invested in Northern, a medical device company that supports the development of its kidney pump, NOMO.

NOMO technology is designed to modernize the preservation and transport of donor kidneys for implantation.

In a statement, NKF explained that 71% of donor kidneys are stored in static cold storage. This is a “no-technology” method that can put organ damage at risk, limit safe storage times, delay graft function, and lead to other adverse events.

According to NKF, the perfuser circulates fluid through the kidneys, optimizing storage and provides real-time data on organ survival.

However, NKF argues that, from donors to recipients, the current machinery is too big, troublesome and expensive, despite decades of clinical evidence requiring continuous perfusion.

Recently, NOMO's small and simple design may completely eliminate the need for an ice cooler.

“The way donors' kidneys are preserved and transported has not changed in decades, and many viable organs are being lost through outdated methods,” Kevin Rontino, CEO of the National Kidney Foundation and kidney transplant recipient, said in a statement.

“The Northern NOMO Kidney Pump provides a more sophisticated, portable and efficient solution to improve transplant outcomes. By investing in this technology, the NKF Innovation Fund is helping more kidneys reach patients in optimal conditions, reduce waste and save lives.”

Bigger trends

According to the organ procurement and transplant network (optn) In 2023, a total of 27,332 kidney transplants were completed in the US. As of November last year, 90,323 people were on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.

High-tech porting companies in 2024 Caredx partnered with Dovetail Genomics to drive innovation in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genotyping for organ and stem cell transplant matching.

This partnership allowed HLA Labs to participate in an early access program that achieves high resolution genotyping and haplotypes using Caredx's NGS-based Alloseq Tx 17 HLA typing solution, including Dovetail Genomics' Hi-C LinkPrep technology.

The companies argue that successful long-term donor and recipient matching can be improved by adding haplotypes.

The same year, Healthcare AI Platform Ubie and the American Kidney Fund (AKF) worked together to fine-tune Ubie's AI-enabled symptom checker for kidney disease detection, with the aim of accelerating patient time into treatment.

Ubie's AI is trained in clinical research papers, and its physician review panel analyzes predictive pathways and symptoms associated with the disease. At the time, AI was able to predict 1,100 diseases in ICD 11, the World Health Organization's international disease classification.

Organ Transplant Company in 2023 Paragonix Technologies won $24 million in Series B funding led by Signet Healthcare Partners. The company has developed the LiverGuard system that incorporates three FDA-clear and CE-marked devices, the Paragonix Sherpapak, the Lungguard Donor Lung Preservation System, and digital tracking and communications technology for organ tracking, reporting and monitoring. The company also sells organ storage and transporter systems.