Article reproducedA here from theA UBC Centre for Blood Research.A

There is an urgent need for curative therapies to treat kidney failure. In 2015, over 21,000 patients in Canada received dialysis to treat kidney failure. Another 2,500 patients received a kidney transplant and 215 died on the waiting list.

As part of an ongoing collaboration, the laboratories of Dr. Kelly M. McNagny (UBC, CBR PI) and Dr. Benjamin S. Freedman (University of Washington) have demonstrated that human kidney organoids grown in a culture dish can accurately model kidney development and disease. This work, recently published in the journal Stem Cells (pictured),A is a culmination of decades of fundamental research into the mammalian kidney and stem cell biology. Kidney organoids are multi-cellular aggregates that form structures nearly identical to human kidney nephrons with respect to size, architectural complexity, and cellular makeup. Importantly, these organoids can be generated from patient-derived cells. While there is still a lot of work to be done to optimize this system, human kidney organoid technology promises to expedite kidney research. In the short term, these methods will allow for more rapid screening of drugs. In the future, this technology may provide custom a ?replacement partsa ? for patients with failing kidneys.