Nahmah Kim-Campbell, MD, MS (Assistant Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics) was awarded an R21 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute titled “Hemoadsorption Device for Selective Removal of Cell-Free Plasma Hemoglobin During Extracorporeal Therapies.” She and her co-PI, William J. Federspiel, PhD (Professor of Bioengineering and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute) will lead a team to develop an extracorporeal hemoadsorption device capable of selectively removing cell-free plasma hemoglobin (PHb) during extracorporeal therapy.
Based on the work of Dr. Kim-Campbell and others, the production of PHb is now recognized as a common and problematic sequela of extracorporeal therapies including cardiopulmonary bypass and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation with contributions to organ dysfunction.
The project’s aims include the fabrication of functional prototypes, characterization of PHb binding kinetics, and demonstration of the feasibility of device implementation and its ability to prevent extracorporeal therapy-induced renal injury. Congratulations to Drs. Kim-Campbell and Federspiel for work that has potential to lead to a valuable new therapy for patients receiving extracorporeal support.