Kids Kidney Research

Development of the kidney involves interactions between only two cells types that differentiate into nearly all of the different tissues in the adult kidney. Development sometimes goes wrong leading to malformed kidneys, and many genes in developing kidneys are also reactivated in diseases of the mature kidney. Here we will investigate what is needed for the cells to develop properly by growing human kidney cells with different characteristics in a dish in our laboratory. We will then be able to use these unique cells (no one else in the world has these) to identify key molecules that control human kidney development, which can then be targeted in future treatments of human kidney malformations and kidney diseases.