Representing the Artificial Kidney Innovation Lab and UMC Utrecht, our researchers presented advances in wearable and implantable artificial kidneys, toxin removal, sorbent modelling and sustainable dialysis at the 63rd European Renal Association Congress in Glasgow. Three members of our team were recognised among the congress’s highest-ranking young-author abstracts.
From 3 to 6 June 2026, the ERA Congress brought together nephrologists, scientists, engineers, healthcare professionals and patient representatives from across Europe and beyond. As one of the leading international meetings for kidney research and clinical nephrology, ERA provided an important platform for us to present our latest results, exchange ideas and establish new collaborations.
Our contributions reflected the breadth of the research conducted at the Artificial Kidney Innovation Lab within the Department of Nephrology at UMC Utrecht. Together, our presentations covered technologies ranging from nanoporous implantable membranes and wearable dialysis devices to improved removal of protein-bound uraemic toxins, predictive sorbent models and more environmentally sustainable dialysis systems.
Karin Gerritsen connects our innovations to the future of kidney care
Karin Gerritsen represented our wider research programme in sessions addressing new dialysis devices, wearable technologies, remote monitoring and sustainable nephrology.
Her contributions connected the individual studies presented at ERA 2026 to our broader ambition: developing kidney-replacement therapies that are more effective and physiological, provide patients with greater freedom and use fewer resources.
This vision is being pursued through multidisciplinary programmes including CORDIAL, REDESIGN-PD, KIDNEW, NXT GEN Hightech and KitNewCare. These projects bring together clinicians, patients, engineers, membrane scientists, chemists, designers, sustainability researchers and technology partners.
By combining clinical knowledge with advanced engineering, our goal is not simply to improve existing dialysis machines. We aim to develop fundamentally new forms of kidney-replacement therapy that are smaller, smarter, more sustainable and better suited to patients’ lives.
Tadeo Alcerreca ranks among ERA’s Top 7 young-author abstracts
Tadeo Alcerreca Valdez presented Ultrathin silicon-based membranes for an implantable hemodialyzer. His work was selected as one of the Top 7 Abstracts presented by young authors, placing it among the highest-ranking scientific contributions at ERA 2026.
Tadeo’s research focuses on extremely thin silicon-based membranes containing precisely manufactured nanopores. The membranes are being developed as a potential blood-filtering component for an implantable artificial kidney.
A future implantable system will require a membrane that is highly permeable while remaining selective enough to retain essential proteins and blood components. By accurately controlling the dimensions, density and distribution of the nanopores, our team aims to reproduce important aspects of the filtration performed by the natural kidney.
This research is closely connected to KIDNEW – Breakthrough Technologies for an Implantable Artificial Kidney. Within KIDNEW, we are working with European partners to combine advanced nanoporous membranes, blood-compatible technologies and living kidney cells into the foundations of a future implantable bioartificial kidney.
Tadeo’s recognition by ERA highlights both the scientific quality of the work and its potential importance for the future of kidney-replacement therapy.
Dian Bolhuis presents first-in-human continuous-flow dialysis results
Dian Bolhuis presented the first-in-human evaluation of a portable continuous-flow peritoneal dialysis system with sorbent-based dialysate regeneration. Her work was selected as one of ERA’s Best Abstracts presented by young authors, placing it within another of the congress’s highest-ranking abstract categories.
Conventional peritoneal dialysis requires patients to use, store and dispose of large volumes of dialysis fluid. A continuous-flow system could instead purify and recirculate a smaller volume of fluid using sorbents. This has the potential to make the treatment more compact and flexible while reducing the logistical burden experienced by patients.
The study is connected to CORDIAL, our European project for the clinical validation of continuous-flow peritoneal dialysis with dialysate regeneration. The first-in-human results represent an important translational step from laboratory development towards practical use in patients.
The knowledge generated through CORDIAL also provides a foundation for REDESIGN-PD, in which we are developing the next generation of the system. REDESIGN-PD focuses not only on technical performance, but also on usability, patient preferences and the design requirements needed to make portable peritoneal dialysis suitable for everyday life.
Together, these projects support our ambition to provide patients with greater mobility, autonomy and control over their treatment.
Abass Fehintola recognised for sustainable kidney-care research
Abass Fehintola presented research comparing the environmental impact of home haemodialysis with dialysis delivered in a treatment centre. His contribution was also selected as one of ERA’s Best Abstracts presented by young authors.
The study considers the complete treatment pathway, including equipment, electricity, water consumption, disposable materials, patient and staff transport, and waste generation. This broad perspective is essential because the environmental footprint of dialysis is not determined by a single machine or consumable.
Abass also shared research on practical opportunities to improve sustainability within routine haemodialysis care. These studies show that greener dialysis will require both innovative technologies and changes to existing clinical processes.
His work forms part of KitNewCare, a European programme aimed at improving the sustainability and quality of kidney care. KitNewCare combines environmental life-cycle assessment with social, financial and health outcomes, helping kidney centres identify sustainability hotspots and evaluate potential improvements.
With Tadeo selected for the Top 7 and Dian and Abass recognised among the Best Abstracts, three areas of our research were represented within ERA 2026’s highest-ranking young-author contributions: implantable artificial kidneys, portable peritoneal dialysis and sustainable kidney care.
Jeroen Vollenbroek presents sorbent modelling and nanoplastics research
Jeroen Vollenbroek presented two distinct but complementary areas of our research: predictive modelling of sorbent systems and a Focussed Oral presentation on nanoplastics.
Sorbents are essential components of compact dialysis systems because they can capture waste products from used dialysis fluid, allowing the fluid to be regenerated and reused. However, the performance of a sorbent-based device depends on many interconnected factors, including binding capacity, adsorption speed, toxin concentrations, flow conditions and the configuration of the sorbent cartridge.
Our modelling work helps predict how these factors influence overall device performance. Such models can support the selection of sorbents, estimate the quantity of material required and identify promising system configurations before extensive experimental testing is performed.
This combination of modelling and experimental validation is particularly important for portable systems, in which the available space and sorbent volume are limited.
Jeroen also presented our work on nanoplastics. These extremely small plastic particles are increasingly detected in the environment, but their behaviour in the human body and their possible relevance to people with impaired kidney function remain insufficiently understood.
The Focussed Oral highlighted the need to investigate how nanoplastics interact with blood and biological tissues, and whether kidney-replacement technologies can remove or may inadvertently expose patients to emerging contaminants.
Jeroen’s wider work is connected to the NXT GEN Hightech Artificial Organs programme. Through NXT GEN, we are developing advanced membranes, sorbents, catalysts and integrated artificial-kidney components. The programme is also supporting the development of our dedicated test facility at UMC Utrecht, where innovations can be evaluated and optimised to accelerate their translation from the laboratory towards clinical application.
Elvira Scholten presents biomimetic forward osmosis
Elvira Scholten delivered the presentation on our biomimetic forward-osmosis research, which explores a more sustainable way of producing dialysis fluid and recovering water from spent dialysate.
Haemodialysis requires large quantities of high-quality water. Conventional reverse-osmosis systems rely on hydraulic pressure, consume electricity and reject a substantial proportion of the incoming water.
Forward osmosis uses a difference in solute concentration to draw water across a selective membrane. The membranes investigated in our research are inspired by biological water channels, which enable highly efficient water transport in living systems.
Our work examines whether this approach can produce dialysis-quality water or recover water from used dialysis fluid while reducing energy consumption and water loss. This could help address one of the most resource-intensive aspects of haemodialysis.
The research is connected to the sustainable technology activities within KitNewCare, in which UMC Utrecht serves as one of the clinical innovation sites. Alongside life-cycle assessments and improvements to existing clinical processes, KitNewCare investigates technologies that could reduce the water, energy and material use associated with dialysis.
João Brás combines displacers to improve toxin removal
João Brás presented Combining furosemide and fatty acids improves uremic toxin clearance beyond individual effects.
Protein-bound uraemic toxins are particularly difficult to remove during conventional haemodialysis. Most of these toxins are attached to proteins such as albumin, while only the small unbound fraction can pass through a conventional dialysis membrane.
João’s research investigates the use of displacers: compounds that compete with uraemic toxins for binding sites on blood proteins. By temporarily releasing a greater proportion of the toxins from these proteins, displacers could make more toxin available for removal during dialysis.
The study examined furosemide and fatty acids both individually and in combination. The results showed that combining the displacers improved protein-bound uraemic toxin clearance beyond the effects achieved using either approach alone.
This suggests that carefully selected combinations may offer a promising and non-invasive strategy for improving toxin removal without requiring the replacement of the complete dialysis system.
Jan Tsai explores circular and resource-efficient dialysis
Jan Tsai presented research on how dialysis equipment and water-treatment processes can be redesigned to reduce their environmental impact.
One of his contributions examined a reusable bicarbonate cartridge. Conventional cartridges are normally discarded after a single treatment, even when part of their contents remains unused. A cartridge designed to be opened, cleaned, refilled and reused could reduce raw-material consumption and the amount of waste generated during haemodialysis.
Jan also contributed to our forward-osmosis research, examining how alternative membrane processes could reduce the water and electricity required to prepare dialysis fluid.
These activities form part of our sustainable haemodialysis programme and are closely linked to KitNewCare. By combining engineering, circular design and environmental assessment, we can evaluate not only whether an innovation works technically, but also whether it delivers a measurable sustainability benefit across its complete life cycle.
Representing our lab and UMC Utrecht
Together, our ERA 2026 contributions represented the three central research themes of the Artificial Kidney Innovation Lab at UMC Utrecht:
- Implantable artificial-kidney technologies
- Dialysis innovation and improved toxin removal
- Green and sustainable nephrology
The projects presented in Glasgow—REDESIGN-PD, CORDIAL, KIDNEW, NXT GEN Hightech and KitNewCare—address different parts of the same challenge.
They range from technologies that could be implemented in current dialysis care to longer-term research aimed at wearable and implantable artificial kidneys. By bringing these projects together within our lab, we can share expertise, testing infrastructure, models and clinical knowledge across the complete innovation pathway.
We are proud of the researchers and students who represented our lab and UMC Utrecht at ERA 2026, and especially proud that the work of Tadeo Alcerreca, Dian Bolhuis and Abass Fehintola was recognised among the congress’s highest-ranking abstracts.
The feedback, scientific discussions and new connections made in Glasgow will help us continue translating our research into practical technologies that improve treatment, patient autonomy and the sustainability of kidney care.
