Cell Catcher: A New Method to Extract and Preserve Live Renal Cells from Urine

What is it about?

Our research team has created a Cell Catcher device, offering an alternative to biopsies for obtaining live patient cells, using urine. Unlike invasive biopsies, collecting urine samples is easy and convenient. However, there is currently a challenge with obtaining cells from urine samples; they must be processed in a laboratory within a short time period, requiring patients to travel to the hospital. The Cell Catcher addresses this issue by introducing a filtration-based method instead of the traditional centrifugation approach. In this study involving more than 60 donors, including both kidney patients and healthy individuals, the Cell Catcher significantly improved the success rate of obtaining viable kidney cells in culture and increased the number obtained. This innovation makes the process of obtaining cells from urine easier and more convenient with the potential to facilitate diagnostic and personalised medicine approaches in nephrology, regenerative medicine, and urological cancers.

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