1 in 10 people worldwide are affected by chronic kidney disease, with kidney failure requiring functional replacement using dialysis or a donor transplant. Using pluripotent stem cells, we can generate a kidney-like tissue, however these are currently functionally immature. Our research into optimising and advancing kidney organoid technologies moves towards the goal of developing a cellular therapy for patients.
Impact
The kidneys primary role is cleaning the blood to remove waste in the form of urine using around 1 million connected filters that connect to a single tube joining the kidney to the bladder. Currently, we can generate the filters but they do not always connect or form a single exit tube. Here, we have developed a method to achieve both of these crucial outcomes, moving us closer to a cellular therapy for kidney failure.
reNEW research
Our work has developed a robust protocol to generate kidney organoids containing all the crucial components of a functional organ. We are now looking at ways to expand these organoids to either connect many together or grow larger individual organoids with more filters to increase their functional capacity.
Image description
This split image of a single organoid visually mirrors our pair of kidneys. It shows cells of two separate lineages (green & red) have developed into a connected tubule network (magenta), extended as a single tube exiting the organoid.
Credits
Sean Wilson, Little Group, Copenhagen Node.
