Profile photo Karin Gerritsen

Karin Gerritsen

Associate Professor - medical

Biography

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’.

Research groups

Artificial Kidney Innovation Lab

Research aim

We develop novel artificial kidney technologies to improve autonomy and quality of life of patients with kidney failure. We have developed a testing facility to fast-track the development of artificial kidney innovations from bench to bed-side.

Go to group

Recent publications

Portable, wearable and implantable artificial kidney systems David Loureiro Ramada, Joost de Vries, Jeroen Vollenbroek, Nazia Noor, Odyl ter Beek, Silvia M. Mihăilă, Fokko Wieringa, Rosalinde Masereeuw, Karin Gerritsen, Dimitrios Stamatialis
Nature Reviews Nephrology, 2023, vol. 19, p.481-490
Light-driven urea oxidation for a wearable artificial kidney Jeroen C. Vollenbroek, Ainoa Paradelo Rodriguez, Bastian T. Mei, Guido Mul, Marianne C. Verhaar, Mathieu Odijk, Karin G.F. Gerritsen
CATALYSIS TODAY, 2023, vol. 419
Bioengineered Kidney Tubules Efficiently Clear Uremic Toxins in Experimental Dialysis Conditions João Faria, Sabbir Ahmed, Dimitrios Stamatialis, Marianne C. Verhaar, Rosalinde Masereeuw, Karin G.F. Gerritsen, Silvia M. Mihăilă
International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2023, vol. 24
The European Green Deal and nephrology Raymond Vanholder, John Agar, Marion Braks, Daniel Gallego, Karin G.F. Gerritsen, Mark Harber, Edita Noruisiene, Jitka Pancirova, Giorgina B. Piccoli, Dimitrios Stamatialis, Fokko Wieringa
Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association, 2023, vol. 38, p.1080-1088
Evidence on continuous flow peritoneal dialysis Joost C de Vries, Maaike K van Gelder, Gianni Cappelli, Maria A Bajo Rubio, Marianne C Verhaar, Karin G F Gerritsen
Seminars in Dialysis, 2022, vol. 35, p.481-497

Fellowships & Awards

Research funding

Main applicant/ coordinator:

  • Proposal Development Grant (for NWO grant; UMCU, 2025), 25k€
  • Consortium Grant - Redesign of a continuous flow peritoneal dialysis system with sorbent-based dialysate regeneration (REDESIGN-PD) (25PPS006 Dutch Kidney Foundation/ Health Holland, 2025-2028), 1173k€
  • TTW/NWO Open technology program grant application_BAKtotheFuture_ BioArtificial Kidney device consisting of living membranes for improved kidney replacement therapy (2024-2029)_995k€
  • Proposal Development Grant (for EC grant; UMCU, 2024), 25k€
  • TKI-LSH (Match) PPP Allowance grant (Dutch Kidney Foundation/ Health Holland)_UKID_ Urea removing membranes for artificial KIDney (2024-2027)_ 344k€
  • PIONIER+ grant (Dutch Kidney Foundation)_100k€ for cofunding (2023)
  • Growth Fund project Biomed04 ‘Artificial Organs’ (37 M) within Growth Fund Program NXTGEN HIGHTECH_2023-2030 (450 M€), a public-private partnership of innovative Dutch high tech companies and knowledge institutes aimed at strengthening the Dutch ecosystem to create next generation high-tech equipment
  • EWUU Seed Fund Grant UPOD (2022-2023): Urea removing membranes for POrtable Dialysis, 50k€
  • Proposal Development Grant (for NWO grant; UMCU, 2022), 10k€
  • HORIZON-EIC-2022-PATHFINDEROPEN-01-01_Breakthrough technologies for an implantable artificial kidney_KIDNEW_(GA no 101099092)_3386k
  • Proposal Development Grant (for Horizon-2022-PathfinderOpen-01-01; UMCU, 2022), 25k€
  • PIONIER+ grant (Dutch Kidney Foundation)_100k€ for co-funding of TTW/NWO Open technology program grant application_LightKid
  • EC Horizon 2020-SC1-BHC-2018-2020_CORDIAL_’Clinical validation of a continuous flow peritoneal dialysis system with dialysate regeneration’ (GA no 945207)_3482k€
  • Proposal Development Grant (for Topic code: SC1-BHC-08-2020; UMC Utrecht, 2019), 25k€
  • Consortium Grant - Continuous flow PD system (COPEDIS) (PPS08 Dutch Kidney Foundation/ Health Holland, 2019-2022), 1005k€
  • Coordination and preparation of clinical trials with the portable artificial kidney 1.0 (Dutch Kidney Foundation/ NeoKidney BV, 2017-2019), 171k€
  • EC Horizon 2020-SC1-2016-2017_WEAKID_'Clinical validation of miniature wearable dialysis machine' (GA no 733169) (2017-2019), 3307k€
  • TTW/NWO Open technology program 14433 ‘Development of a urea sorbent for dialysate regeneration’ (2015-2021), 744k€
  • In vivo testing of Portable Artificial Kidney 1.0 (Dutch Kidney Foundation/ NeoKidney BV, 2015-2017), 130k€
  • Renal Replacement Technology Grant ‘Safety analysis and optimization of electrochemical dialysate regeneration’ (Dutch Kidney Foundation, NT 12.05, 2013-2017), 260k€
  • ‘In vitro and in vivo validation of the wearable artificial kidney’ (Sponsoring by Roche BV, 2014-2015), 20k€
  • EMBO Long-Term Fellowship ‘Clearance of ‘difficult to remove’ uraemic toxins by the wearable artificial kidney device iNephron’ (2012)

 

Co-applicant:

  • KIC-programme NWO - Smart materials_Advanced Dialysis by Artificial Cell based Protein-bound Toxin removal_ADAPT_(2025-2029)_903k€ (Main applicant: Roos Masereeuw, Utrecht University)

My role: WP3 lead

  • PPS-Programme Health Holland - Biohybrid Kidney XB (“Crossing Borders”), (2025 – 2029)_ 3M€ (Main applicant: Jasper Boomker, Dutch Kidney Foundation)

My role: Medical lead

  • HORIZON-HLTH-2023-CARE-04 ‘Sustainable Healthcare using Kidney Care as a Model and Demonstrator’_KitNewCare_ (2024-2027)_6044k€ (Main applicant: Brett Duane, Trinity College Dublin)

My role: Medical lead and WP4 lead

  • Renal animal models of HD (NWO/ ZonMW, 2022-2023), 22k€ (Main applicant: Merle Krebber, UMCU)
  • KidneyX Artificial Kidney Prize (public-private partnership between U.S. HHS and ASN, 2021) for MI-TRAM (Miniature, wireless toxin-removal system for implantable, wearable, portable artificial kidneys – collaborative project with IMEC (main applicant), UMCU, UU, Univ of Aachen), 650k€
  • LSH-TKI Project 'Novel non-thrombogenic membranes for removal of middle-sized molecules and protein-bound solutes from blood'_NOVAMEM (LSH 16059-SGF) (2017-2020), 768k€ (Main applicant: Stamatialis, UTwente)
  • Preclinical in vivo testing of mixed membranes for blood purification (UT, 2015-2016), 40k€

 

Other research projects:

  • Kolff grant Success Accelerator DETOX_‘A combined computational–experimental approach to unravel drug–toxin interactions in chronic kidney disease’ (DKF, 2023-2025), 430k (Main applicant: Aurelie Carlier (MU), Role Gerritsen: co-writing grant application, supervisor during project)
  • Kolff grant ‘Sorbent-Assisted Continuous Flow Peritoneal Dialysis in silico’ (DKF, 2022-2024), 160k (Main applicant: Sangita Swapnasrita (MU), Role Gerritsen: co-writing grant application, supervisor during project)
  • EC Horizon 2020-MSCA-ITN-2018_RenalToolBox (2019-2023)_Role: co-promotor PhD candidate
  • PI of 2 projects within the Strategic Alliance of the University of Twente, Utrecht University and University Medical Center Utrecht (2017 – 2022)
  • EC FP7-ICT-2009_NEPHRON+_ ICT-enabled Wearable Artificial Kidney and Personal Renal Care System_(GA no 248261) (2010-2014)_Role: postdoctoral researcher, supervisor of PhD candidate