We grow kidney-like structures to replace damaged kidney tissues, as an alternative to donor organs. To remove urine from the body, filtering structures need to connect to the host-kidney via tube-shaped structures (tubules). In the lab the tubules from our structures don’t mature completely. But upon transplantation, they mature and open so waste products go through. We aim to make the kidney-like structures work in a host.
Impact
Kidneys filter your blood and remove waste and excess fluid from your body. Treatment for patients with end stage kidney disease is dialysis, which has a high impact on daily life. A long term treatment for these patients is a kidney transplant. Unfortunately there are not enough donor kidneys available. We aim to generate transplantable kidney tissues from stem cells that could solve the shortage.
reNEW research
Within reNEW we aim to improve the way we make the kidney-like structures in the laboratory and analyse them upon transplantation. They now start to function when they are transplanted. We are currently investigating whether a connection between the host and the kidney-like structure develops so that the urine that is formed in the structure can leave the body.
Image description
The picture shows a bunch of tubule structures starting to mature. The tubule structures are opening and hollow spaces, which are called ‘lumen’, are forming.
Credits
Rianne van Nieuwland, Lab Ton Rabelink.
