Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series featuring Ryuji Morizane, MD, PhD – “Kidney organoids for disease models and therapeutic development”

Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series

Ryuji Morizane, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator, Massachusetts General Hospital
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

Title & Abstract:

“Kidney organoids for disease models and therapeutic development”

We have developed an efficient, chemically defined protocol for differentiating human pluripotent stem cells into multipotent nephron progenitor cells that can form kidney organoids. Kidney organoids contain epithelial nephron-like structures expressing markers of podocytes, proximal tubules, loops of Henle, and distal nephrons in an organized, continuous arrangement that resembles the nephron in vivo. The organoids express genes reflecting various transporters seen in the adult metanephric-derived kidney, enabling the assessment of transporter-mediated drug nephrotoxicity. Repetitive injury to tubular cells causes interstitial fibroblast expansion with characteristics of myofibroblasts, modeling kidney fibrosis in vitro. Organ-on-chip facilitates kidney organoid vascularization and maturation under flow, providing a physiological model of polycystic kidney disease (PKD) for the identification of disease mechanisms and therapeutic candidates. Hence the generated kidney organoids are effective tools to study genetic disorders of the kidney as well as mechanisms of acute and chronic kidney disease.