There are over 800 million people affected by kidney disease globally. Our lab aims to create little kidneys, using scientific knowledge of the development of kidneys and re-creating this process in a dish as accurately as possible.
Impact
Replacement of damaged kidneys has traditionally been limited to dialysis or kidney transplant. In Australia alone, 1,800 people are waiting for a transplant, and 14,000 are on dialysis. With limited donor kidneys available, an alternative is urgently needed. Our goal is to develop an alternative therapy, creating transplantable kidneys from stem cells in the lab.
reNEW research
Our team developed a method for modelling human embryonic kidneys. Recreating an organ using stem cells as our malleable building blocks poses challenges. Currently, we are testing different ways to modulate the instructional cell pathways that the stem cells activate on their way to becoming “mini” kidneys, to improve the uniformity and accuracy of our model.
Image description
Mini kidneys are known as kidney organoids. These small spheres were once all stem cells. Now, there is a variety of cell types, creating a colourful cellular ecosystem, recreating the diversity of cells in the human kidney.
Credits
Hannah Baric, Research Assistant, Dr Allara Zylberberg, Research Officer, Little Lab, reNEW Melbourne.
