We have the broad vision of developing stem cell derived kidney tissues suitable for clinical renal replacement. My research is focused on developing methods to understand and manipulate these mini kidneys to improve their maturity and growth, ultimately to supplement renal function in patients with kidney disease. To achieve this, we focus on guiding cells to develop and organise into functional networks of renal tissue by providing the right signals.
Impact
Over 700 million people worldwide are affected by kidney disease, a number expected to double over the next 20 years. Currently, patients with kidney disease can only manage symptoms, undergoing renal transplantation or dialysis at renal failure. This research will aid the generation of organoids suitable for therapeutic application, and thus has enormous potential to improve the prognosis and quality of life for patients with renal disease.
reNEW research
We have currently examined multiple different signals that promote the formation of the appropriate kidney structures, and have studied the benefits of modifying the environment that the mini kidneys grow in. We have subsequently developed a workflow pipeline that involves routinely generating these mini kidneys from stem cells and then transplanting them into a mouse kidney to examine their regenerative capacity.
Image description
These are kidney micro-organoids. They contain up to ten nephrons, the filtration units of the kidney that cleans the blood and removes waste from the body. For comparison, each human kidney contains about a million nephrons.
Credits
Dr Allara Zylberberg, Kidney Regeneration Laboratory, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
