The bio-reactor of the prototype BALS System developed by the project team.

Since it's inception in 2003, the Bio-artificial liver support system project (BALSS) has progressed in leaps and bounds. Established to develop a novel system that will assist patients suffering from acute liver failure, the project has made a number of notable strides towards their goal.

Among these achievements is the characterisation and production of an artificial oxygen carrier and demonstration of its efficacy in improving metabolic activity in cell culture experiments. The team also successfully designed, developed and constructed a prototype BALS System, which was evaluated in preclinical animal trial experiments. In addition, an optimised techniques for the successful large-scale isolation of pig liver cells was developed.

For the trials to take place, it was necessary to establish a stable, repeatable surgical liver failure animal model which, according to Kobus van Wyk, a project team member, was a very difficult and painstaking process. "In order to ensure predictable outcomes, we had to carefully define a large number of surgical parameters and criteria", he said.

The successful development of this model has provided the team with a key validator for the efficacy of the BALS System during preclinical trials, which had been ongoing at the University of Pretoria's Onderstepoort Biomedical Research Centre for most of 2006.

However, since suspension of animal trials in November 2006, the BALSS team has geared their effort towards planning the work that is intended to build on the successes produced on the PFC oxygen carrier. The team has started to plan a laboratory phase which will aim to address the issues of toxicity and PFC effectiveness.

Throughout the history of the team, patents have been filed and granted in a number of countries including France, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa and Eurasia. Further outputs include numerous accepted publications and oral conference presentations.

The groundbreaking work being conducted by the team has also been recognised through the conferring of a number of awards, including the Innovation Fund Patent Incentive Awards received by the four inventors on the BALSS patent - Prof Schalk van der Merwe, Dr Rob Bond, Dr Sean Moolman and van Wyk.

According to van Wyk, a major aim of the project is to identify and collaborate with a suitable industrial partner in the future commercial exploitation of the BALSS. With the Innovation Fund grant approaching the end of its term, talks are already underway with various international role players. The contributions of international role players are of the utmost importance for the successful continuation of this important project.