The only current treatment options for patients with kidney disease are transplantation and dialysis. Our lab creates micro-organoids with the potential to provide renal replacement therapy for these patients. These mini kidneys contain nephrons – the functional units of the kidney that filter waste from the body. We combine computational approaches to biological investigations to generate more efficient experimental analysis.
Impact
Chronic kidney disease affects more than 10% of the world’s population and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. By using stem cell derived organoids, we can potentially provide renal replacement therapy to those who would otherwise not be eligible. Furthermore, the ability to generate these organoids could allow for a more personalised approach to identifying therapies for patients.
reNEW research
We currently routinely generate kidney organoids and image them, as pictured. Each image can contain hundreds of individual organoids. These images automatically enter our analysis pipeline, which organises, segments and quantifies them. This automatic machine learning approach allows us to capture metrics at a per-organoid resolution and gain insights not possible with traditional approaches.
Image description
This is 1024 kidney micro-organoids, automatically segmented by our pipeline. This is a tiny subset of the thousands of organoids analysed and segmented, highlighting the scale of our analysis.
Credits
Emma Scully, Kidney Regeneration Laboratory, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
Dr Allara Zylberberg, Kidney Regeneration Laboratory, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
