Healionics is developing safer, more reliable vascular access solutions to enhance the health and longevity of  kidney failure patients while reducing the high cost of dialysis care.

Patients without functional kidneys need frequent blood filtration via dialysis to survive, but current methods to repeatedly access the bloodstream are risky, unreliable, and costly. A vascular graft (synthetic blood vessel) is often implanted to create an access site under the skin with sufficient flow rate for dialysis, but existing grafts frequently fail due to occlusion and/or infection. Healionics’ STARgraft vascular graft has demonstrated superior resistance to both problems in human studies and has been granted Breakthrough Device designation by the FDA.

STARgraft leverages Healionics’ platform STAR® (Sphere Templated Angiogenic Regeneration) biomaterial scaffold which is a breakthrough in biointegration and tissue regeneration. This novel synthetic biomaterial resulted from a sustained effort to discover the “sweet spot”, i.e., the exact pore size and structure that enables angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels) and healing while reducing foreign body response, minimizing tissue scarring and imparting high resistance to infection.

Our Seattle location has facilitated strong connections and collaboration with several organizations that have pioneered the life-saving devices and clinical innovations needed to treat kidney failure with dialysis. These include University of Washington (where the first device for long-term vascular access and early dialysis machines were invented), Northwest Kidney Centers (the world’s first outpatient dialysis center), Kidney Research Institute, and Center for Dialysis Innovation. 

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