Karin Gerritsen

Karin Gerritsen is internist-nephrologist and clinical scientist with a main interest in home dialysis. Her research focuses on novel and sustainable kidney replacement therapies, including miniature home-treatment systems (portable, wearable and implantable (bio)artificial kidney) and green dialysis (design of ‘the world’s greenest dialysis department’ to be realized at UMC Utrecht in 5 years – EU KitNewCare project). She plays a pivotal role in groundbreaking research; her team and partners successfully developed prototypes for both portable hemodialysis and portable peritoneal dialysis which have both been tested for the first time in humans in 2024. Karin leads a €37M Growth Fund NXTGEN HIGHTECH project ‘Artificial Organs’, which is setting up production lines for advanced artificial kidney technologies and restorative vascular prostheses in the Netherlands (together with academia and industry) and realized a dedicated testlab (Artificial Kidney Innovation Lab) to ensure fast translation from bench to bedside. Additionally, she leads the (inter)national interdisciplinary collaborative projects BAKtotheFUTURE, KIDNEW, CORDIAL, REDESIGN_PD and UKID which all focus on novel (bio)artificial kidney technologies to provide a more effective, physiological, and affordable alternative to current kidney replacement therapies. Karin’s research is conducted in close collaboration with the Dutch Kidney Foundation and aligns with the ‘Roadmap towards development of novel renal replacement therapies’.