Kidneys can’t regenerate themselves when they are damaged or when they get old. In my research I use stem cells to grow “mini kidneys”, called organoids, that can be used to model diseases or test drugs before they are used in humans. Unfortunately, during this process not every cell becomes part of the kidney. The focus of my study is understanding why these “stray” cells appear and how to remove them in order to make our mini kidneys more similar to a real one.
reNEW research
Kidney organoids are the core technology of our research group. They are used to better understand how kidney diseases work, and in the future, they could become a therapy to replace damaged kidneys for patients in need. To make these organoids more versatile and reliable, we use fluorescent proteins and the analysis of the RNA of the individual cells to understand what changes occur over time and how these changes can improve or worsen their applications for medicine.
Image description
Cells from a kidney organoid: nephron tubules (white), supporting stroma (green), and stray unwanted cells (red).
Credits
Jacopo Munaretto, PhD student, Little lab, reNEW Copenhagen.
