I have many concerns about nephrology's future business model, but this is not one of them.
Plus, it wouldn't be the first time that researchers became overly enthusiastic about their own project (they mention on their site that animal studies won't even start b4 2017).
It's not like these patients will return to normal; I wonder how much clearance such a machine can provide? They'll still likely need epo at least and phos, acid/base, K fine tuning (as some transplant or PD guys still need). Seems like they plan to use kidney cells to do some of the regulation after filtration (as opposed to a sorbent based dialysis system). This sounds like it'd be complicated to get just right and to avoid catastrophes: For example, if the cells malfunction, you'd start losing a ton of ultrafiltrate, until you get hypotensive and stop filtering (kind of like an ATN w/o a compensatory GFR decrease) . As mentioned I'd also be surprised if clotting (or at least protein buildup or membrane integrity damage) isn't an issue over time.
Then, there is the risk of infection (like we sometimes see with LVADs...) Plus, implanting these may be difficult in vasculopathic and/or diabetic patients who make up the majority of our patients.
