IPRO TO RECREATE FIRST ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY MACHINE, INVENTOR’S ASSISTANT TO SPEAK AT IIT
Jacob van Noordwijk, who assisted Willem Kolff in the development of the first artificial kidney machine, and Herman Broers, director of Netherlands’ Kolff Museum, where the machine is exhibited, will present a lecture, “The Early History of Dialysis,” at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), on February 24. The discussion will be held from 12:50–2:05 p.m. at the Engineering 1 Auditorium, 10 W. 32nd St.
The kidney machine was built in 1943 Nazi-occupied Netherlands, by Kolff and Noordwijk. In a country short of supplies, they developed a simple device that could be quickly assembled and sterilized. Their device was the first successful extra-corporeal medical instrument. It provided a successful technological reference point for subsequent development of dialysis and it established the field of artificial organs.
Students participating in IIT’s Interprofessional Projects Program will build a working model of the rotating drum to present to the Museum of Science and Industry for exhibition.
The event is co-sponsored by IIT’s Biomedical Engineering and Humanities Department.
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.
