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.