Project Team

Yury Gogotsi, PhD A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute (DNI) and Materials Science Department

Meera Harhay, MD Division of Nephrology & Hypertension, Drexel College of Medicine

Mykola Seredych, PhD A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute (DNI) and Materials Science Department

Jesse Kim, CEO, EOFlow

Ian G. Welsford, CTO, EOFlow

Abstract

Dialysis is a life-sustaining therapy for hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide with kidney failure. However, dialysis care is currently reliant on expensive and inefficient filtration systems, large volumes of water, and cumbersome and antiquated technology. The objective of this pro-posal is to refine MXenes, biocompatible 2D transition metal carbides discovered at Drexel University, to optimally filter toxins that accumulate in the body due to end-stage kidney disease and to regenerate dialysis fluid after it is used. This project will provide a core technology to greatly improve existing dialysis modalities and to enable the downstream development of wearable di-alysis options. Multilayered Ti3C2 MXene can selectively adsorb uremic toxins due to the presence of narrow slit pores between the negatively charged MXene sheets. The large surface area and unique surface chemistry of MXenes make them ideally suited to replace existing dialysis poly-mers used for clearance of uremic toxins and current dialysate adsorption materials, such as immobilized urease, used to remove uremic toxins from spent dialysate. The use of MXene could reduce costs and resources required for both facility- and home-based kidney disease treatments, such as traditional and ambulatory hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis, and also advance the development of wearable dialysis technologies