Advancing Kidney Development from Pluripotent Stem Cells Using State of the Art Imaging Technologies

在这个项目中，学生将在几个层面上创建和分析在实验室中制造的人类多能干细胞衍生的迷你肾脏。我们已经制定了生成这些肾脏结构的方案，这些肾脏结构包含肾脏的不同部分，包括过滤单元，肾小球和回收营养的不同小管元素。它们的发育方式与胎儿相似。然而，到目前为止，这些微型肾脏缺乏正常的尿出口通道——输尿管。该学生将使用该方案生成干细胞衍生的肾脏组织，并将其发展为输尿管。这将是使用干细胞制造功能正常的肾脏的关键一步，这可能会取代肾衰竭患者接受他人捐赠的肾脏移植或推迟他们接受此类移植的需要。为了评估干细胞微型肾脏的发展，学生不仅将使用基因组技术，还将使用最先进的成像技术来观察微型肾脏内部的细节，这将极大地提高我们可以观察到的细节和工作的新颖性。它将使我们能够开发出与健康人肾脏组织尽可能相似的肾脏组织。

In this project the student will create and analyse, at several levels, human pluripotent stem cell derived mini-kidneys made in the laboratory. We have developed protocols to generate these kidney structures which contain the different parts of the kidney including the filtering unit, the glomerulus and the different tubular elements which reclaim nutrients. They develop in a similar way to in the fetus. However so far these mini kidneys lack the normal exit route for urine, the ureter. The student will use the protocol to generate stem cell derived kidney tissue and develop this to generate the ureter. This will be a critical stepping stone towards using stem cells to make properly functioning kidneys which might replace the need for people with kidney failure to receive kidney transplants donated by other people or delay their need to receive such transplants. In order to evaluate the development of stem cell -mini kidneys the student will not only use genomics technologies but also state-of-the-art imaging techniques to see the fine details inside the mini-kidneys, and this will vastly improve the detail we can observe and novelty of the work. It will allow us to develop kidney tissue with the greatest possible similarity to that found in healthy people.