Imagine that you're confronted with a impossible to solve problem? What would you do?

Would you lean back and accept the situation as it is or do you step up and use all your skills and energy to find a solution?

The life and work of the Dutch inventor of the artificial kidney, Willem Kollff reads like a adventure novel. His lifelong research and development in the field of artificial organs and the difficulties and critique he had to overcome is still an inspiration for nowadays scientists and entrepreneurs.

Showcasing an early Kolff artificial kidney, curator Bart Grob will reflect on the impact, importance and relevance of Willem Kolffs achievements.

The advent of the artificial kidney enabled hemodialysis treatment -a method of blood cleansing- for patients with chronic kidney disease. Today, over 2 million people worldwide can live with kidney failure because they can be dialysed 3 times 4 hours per week. Although lifesaving on the short term, hemodialysis is burdensome and has great impact on patients’ well-being and social life.  Unfortunately, the technique has barely changed over the last decades and patients are raising their voice, calling for more and expedited innovations that improve the quality of life on dialysis. Jasper Boomker, program manager innovation at the Dutch Kidney Foundation, will talk about how patients, doctors and engineers jointly shape the future of dialysis. Starting with enabling more dialysis at home and advancing the dialysis technique towards portable, and later implantable (bio-)artificial kidneys.

Marlon and Asel will represent the future of kidney replacement, going into his research on working towards personlized bioengineered kidneys & preservation and quality of donor kidneys using a new technique called normothermic machine perfusion.