The Liver Group Charity
Charity number: 1166985
Website: www.ucl.ac.uk/livergroup
Description:
The aim of The Liver Group Charity is to improve the treatment of liver disease through research, with our particular thrust into the development of the Bioartificial Liver. The research and development involved in achieving this long term aim necessarily ? and beneficially - include the education and training of scientists and clinicians in the field, as well as the actual research both at the laboratory and the clinical interface.
Liver Disease is the fifth leading cause of death in the UK for under 65s, and the second commonest cause of death in middle-aged men in the UK.
According to the World Health Organisation, 650 million people have liver disease, resulting in 1-2 million deaths a year.
Whilst a liver transplant is an effective way of managing conditions that cause acute and chronic liver failure, only 2 in every 3 people on the transplant list in the UK get a new liver in time; given that 80% of those with acute liver failure will die without a liver transplant this is a huge problem.
Fortunately the very nature of the liver provides us with an unique oppurtunity. Given time it will regrow after acute damage. Thus our solution - the bioartificial liver - temporarily replaces liver function, giving the liver those critical few days necessary to heal itself.
Our bioartificial liver ?buys time? for a sick liver to repair itself in patients with acute liver failure, so that a patient could leave hospital without the lifelong drug regime necessary after a transplant. Even in patients with chronic liver disease, who will inevitably need a whole new liver, the bioartificial liver will buy them time until a compatible new liver is available.
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