HepaHope Technology Overview
The single most important factor that differentiates the HepaPheresis™ System, the BioTester™, and the Chemosensitivity Testing System from all other systems is HepaHope’s proprietary bioreactor. The patented liver slice cultivation technology at the core of the bioreactor represents a significant breakthrough in artificial liver technology and system functionality. Prior research was largely devoted to — and limited by — the use of a cell-based approach. Recognizing that groups of isolated liver cells are inherently deficient in the kinds of cell-to-cell and cell-to-connective tissue interactions that occur in a normally functioning liver, Dr. Park and his team developed a proprietary new technology that utilized intact liver slices rather than individual cells. The result was a system that maintains the structural integrity and interactivity of a normal liver; a system that more closely mimics normal liver function, and one that demonstrates significantly greater efficacy in eliminating toxins.
HepaHope’s HepaPheresis™ System is an extracorporeal bio-artificial liver system based on organ slice cultivation technology. Operating in a manner similar to that of a kidney dialysis machine, plasma is drawn from the patient’s body, treated by the HepaPheresis™ System, and then re-circulated within the body. Through repeated treatments, accumulated toxins are treated and eliminated in a manner similar to that occurring in a normal liver, providing time for the patient’s own liver to regenerate or helping the patient to remain stable while waiting for a transplant to become available.
The same bioreactor technology is also at the heart of HepaHope’s BioTester™, which provides the pharmaceutical industry with a better alternative to in vivo or in vitro drug screening and testing protocols.
In addition to the HepaPheresis™System and BioTester™, HepaHope's Chemosensitivity Testing System, which also uses organ slice cultivation technology, will enable oncologists to apply different anti-cancer drugs and drug combinations to multiple tissue samples and thereby determine the most effective drug or drug combination to destroy a cancer tumor.