Home Dialysis Plus receives $170,000 for prototype development

PORTLAND, Ore.--Home Dialysis Plus Ltd. said January 3 that it has received an award of $170,000 that will help fund the development of a dialyzer prototype for its home dialysis machine, which is in development.

The Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) awarded the money to Oregon State University's College of Engineering, which Home Dialysis Plus is partnering with to develop the new machine. ONAMI is a research center cooperative between the Oregon state government and industry in the Pacific Northwest.

Home Dialysis Plus said the home hemodialysis machine will be portable and about the size of a suitcase. The machine is being developed with Microtechnology-based Energy and Chemical Systems (MECS) technology, which has been co-patented by Oregon State and Home Dialysis Plus. MECS involves the miniaturization of devices that deal with heat transfer, mass transfer and fluidic processes, according to Home Dialysis Plus.

The $170,000 award will allow researchers to scale-up, test and begin development of high-volume fabrication processes for the full-sized MECS dialyzers. Home Dialysis Plus said the prototype of the full-size working dialyzer is expected to be completed in August. The company is looking for additional funding to develop and manufacture the unit, which could be marketed as early as 2008.