The kidneys are a crucial organ for maintaining body homeostasis, with their primary function being the filtering of the body’s blood. This occurs in a complex network of structures called nephrons. Kidney affecting diseases are therefore a great medical burden.
Impact
Current kidney organoid models have shortcomings that make optimal disease modelling difficult. We are investigating ways to improve culture methods to decrease that difficulty.
reNEW research
Melissa Little’s group in reNEW Copenhagen, from which Inês Paz Santos is a part of, is using kidney organoids derived from pluripotent stem cells as a model to study kidney development and disease.
Image description
A kidney organoid that is stained to visualise nephrons, with colours representing different nephron segments
Credits
Inês Paz Santos, Melissa Little’s Lab, reNEW Copenhagen