OVERVIEW

My lab is focused on the development of a new form of therapy, the bioartificial liver (BAL), to support patients with liver failure – either prior to liver transplantation, until recovery of the native liver, or as a chronic supportive therapy. The BAL operates extracorporeally like hemodialysis, but is unique in that it contains metabolically active liver cells (i.e., hepatocytes) that provide liver functions to the patient. The broad, long term objective of our research program is to develop a cell-based extracorporeal BAL for supporting patients with acute and chronic forms of liver failure.

ABOUT DR. NYBERG

Scott L. Nyberg, M.D., Ph.D. is principal investigator of the lab. He is uniquely trained as a liver transplant surgeon and biomedical engineer. For the past 15 years, Dr. Nyberg has been directly involved with the development and testing of cell-based liver support devices for treatment of fulminant hepatic failure.