National Kidney Foundation invests in kidney preservation technology

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Innovation Fund announced it has made an investment in Northernmost, a medical device company to aid in the development of the company's kidney pump, NoMo. NoMo technology is designed to modernize the preservation and transport of donor kidneys for transplantation. In a statement, the NKF explained that 71% of donor kidneys are preserved in static cold storage, a "no-tech" method that might risk organ damage, limit safe storage time and lead to delayed graft-function, as well as other adverse events. According to the NKF, perfusion machines circulate fluid through the kidney, optimizing preservation and providing real-time data on organ viability.  However, NKF asserts that, despite decades of clinical evidence demanding continuous perfusion, all the way from donor to recipient, current machines are too big, awkward and costly. NoMo's smaller and simpler design could eliminate the need for ice coolers completely, according to Northernmost. "The way donor kidneys are preserved and transported hasn't changed in decades, and too many viable organs are lost due to outdated methods," Kevin Longino, CEO of the National Kidney Foundation and a kidney transplant recipient, said in a statement.  "Northernmost's NoMo Kidney Pump offers a more advanced, portable, and efficient solution to improve transplant outcomes. By investing in this technology, the NKF Innovation Fund is helping to ensure that more kidneys reach patients in optimal condition, reducing waste and saving lives." THE LARGER TREND  According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) in 2023, a total of 27,332 kidney transplants were completed in the US. As of Nov. of last year, 90,323 people were on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. In 2024, tech-enabled transplant company CareDx partnered with Dovetail Genomics to push innovation in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genotyping for organ and stem cell transplant matching.  The partnership enabled HLA labs to take part in an early access program utilizing CareDx's NGS-based AlloSeq Tx 17 HLA typing solution that will include Dovetail Genomics' Hi-C LinkPrep technology to attain high-resolution genotyping and haplotyping.  The two companies assert that successful long-term donor-recipient matching can be improved with the addition of haplotyping.  That same year, healthcare AI platform Ubie and the American Kidney Fund (AKF) collaborated to fine-tune Ubie's AI-enabled symptom checker for kidney disease detection with the aim of accelerating a patient's time to treatment. Ubie's AI is trained on clinical research papers, and then its physician review panel analyzes the prediction pathways and symptoms associated with a disease. At the time, the AI could predict 1,100 diseases in the ICD 11, the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases. In 2023, organ transplant company Paragonix Technologies scored $24 million in Series B funding led by Signet Healthcare Partners. The company developed three FDA-cleared and CE-marked devices, Paragonix SherpaPak, LUNGguard Donor Lung Preservation System and the LIVERguard System that incorporate digital tracking and communication technologies for organ tracking, reporting and monitoring. The company also markets organ storage and transporter systems.