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At Renapta, we invent and develop medical systems for the benefit of people with kidney impairment. Our lead product aims to improve the outlook for people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

Currently affecting about 0.2% of the population, the prevalence of ESRD is on the rise. People with ESRD have a very limited kidney function and become dependent on renal dialysis. However, this treatment is unable to prevent the gradual build-up of uremic toxins in blood. Uremic toxins are a wide variety of compounds associated with a wide range of disease states, including renal failure, proteinuria, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Ultimately, ESRD patients are left with kidney transplantation as their only option, and are then faced with the scarcity of suitable donor kidneys.

Working with an international panel of nephrologists, we address this urgent medical need by developing an extracorporeal device that will be used in conjunction with hemodialysis. The device separates plasma from blood and then selectively captures uremic toxins from the plasma with the use of aptamers. Aptamers are short strands of DNA or RNA with the ability to seek out and strongly bind their target molecules, even from an extremely complex mixture such as plasma. We are currently working towards demonstrating proof of principle in animal models.