Dean Johnson

Research Overview

To improve both health outcomes and the quality of life for those on hemodialysis (HD), my lab is working on technologies to enable portable or wearable HD. The best hope for a healthier future for ESRD patients, short of a replacement kidney, is the emergence of disruptive technologies in HD therapy. The goal of my lab will be to develop MEMS technologies and devices for medical sensors, diagnostics, and therapies.

My current research focuses on exploiting the properties of ultrathin nanoporous membranes to enable portable/wearable hemodialysis devices for renal replacement therapy. My group is developing an in vitro benchtop large animal model simulator and has experience with micro dialysis, small-format device hemodialysis, uremic toxin metrology, and Multiphysics modeling (COMSOL).

In the next three years I will improve bench top tests and techniques to help bring compact dialysis devices from bench top to clinical trials, reducing the number of animals used in pre-clinical trials. I will investigate basic research questions regarding hemodialysis, ESRD, AKI and other kidney disorders through development of more efficient HD devices and microfluidic based diagnostic and bench top tools. Benchtop tools may include nephron on a chip, kidney on a chip, and a bench top model of the human vasculature including uremic toxin compartments. My research lab will investigate toxin detection, biomarkers, and therapeutic techniques through the application of these tools. 

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