Winning Solution: Manufacturing and System Dynamics Tools Enabling Autonomous Blood Purification Implants

Kidney failure affects a million Americans, and costs over 100,000 lives each year. Patients experience not only the impact of their disease, but the inevitable side effects of renal replacement therapy. IVIVA’s team is developing cell-based living therapeutics that replace the kidney’s most essential functions. Because we build these implants from patient derived cells, there is no need for long-term immunosuppression, no risk for rejection, and no donor organ shortage that currently limit the impact of kidney transplantation. We are excited to join the KidneyX community and are grateful for the support of the KidneyX team and the American Society of Nephrology to mature our technology and to improve patient’s lives.

Dr. Ott is founder and CEO of IVIVA Medical, a startup company focused on developing a cure for kidney failure and insulin dependent diabetes. He received his medical degree at the Leopold-Franzens-University in Innsbruck, Austria, and developed a passion for medical discovery through his clinical work with patients. Dr. Ott is a thoracic surgeon at Mass General Brigham, Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School (now part time) and leads the Center for Organ Engineering at Mass General Hospital. Dr. Ott’s long-term goal is to eliminate donor organ shortage and the need for life-long immunosuppression and to shift chronic disease care from maintenance therapy to cure. He is deeply grateful for the opportunity to work at the interface of clinical medicine and basic science with extremely talented teams in academia and industry.