Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center; the University of California, San Francisco; and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed a new type of filter for kidney dialysis machines that can clean the blood more efficiently and improve patient care. The new filter uses carbon nanotubes – tiny tubes formed by a sheet of carbon atoms bonded in a hexagonal honeycomb mesh structure – that have very small, smooth channels. These channels make it easier to remove toxins and waste from the blood without letting important proteins escape, which can be a problem with traditional filters.
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