ALEM (Astana Life Ex-situ Machine)

History

2025: Product Announcement

In April 2025, a team of UMC Heart Center research doctors introduced the innovative ALEM (Astana Life Ex-situ Machine) system in Osaka, capable of maintaining the viability of donor organs for more than 24 hours, which exceeds the capabilities of traditional methods by six times. The unique development was created under the leadership of UMC Chairman of the Board Yuri Pi with the support of the Heart Center Foundation.

Traditional methods of preserving donor organs ensure their viability only for 4-6 hours, which creates serious logistical problems, especially in countries with a large territory, like Kazakhstan. The ALEM system solves this problem by recreating conditions as close as possible to the natural environment of the body: it maintains the optimal temperature, saturates the blood with oxygen and monitors vital signs in real time.

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Фото: avestnik.kz

The project manager Yuri Pya said that the idea of ​ ​ creating the device arose in a critical situation, when due to adverse weather conditions, difficulties arose with the timely delivery of the donor heart. According to him, the ALEM system is not only able to preserve organs for much longer, but also potentially treat them before transplantation, which can significantly improve the outcome of operations and expand opportunities for patients who need a transplant.

Director of the Clinical Academic Department of Cardiac Surgery of the UMC Heart Center Timur Lesbekov stressed that the device created can be considered a real breakthrough in medicine. Despite the fact that the technology itself is not new, its practical implementation, which allows you to preserve the organ for up to a day, represents a significant achievement.^[1]

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