To reconstruct nature’s molecular and cellular blueprints, the team studied hundreds of human and mouse nephrons at various points along their typical developmental trajectories. “Only by understanding the logical framework of normal embryonic development can we improve our ability to synthesize cell types, model disease and ultimately build functional systems to replace defective kidneys.” “There’s only one way to build a kidney, and that’s nature’s way,” said McMahon, who is the director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. Their findings are publicly available as part of the Human Nephrogenesis Atlas, which is a searchable database showing when and where genes are active in the developing human kidney, and predicting regulatory interactions going on in developing cell types. The team traced the blueprints for how cells interact to lay the foundations of the human kidney, and how abnormal developmental processes could contribute to disease. The study also brought in the expertise of collaborators from Princeton University and the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Published in the journal Developmental Cell, the study from Andy McMahon’s lab in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at USC was led by Nils Lindström, who started the research as a postdoctoral fellow and is now an assistant professor in the same department.
But a USC-led team of scientists has managed to borrow some of nature’s pages through a comprehensive analysis of how kidneys form their filtering units, known as nephrons. When it comes to building a kidney, only nature possesses the complete set of blueprints. (Image by Nils Lindström/McMahon Lab/USC Stem Cell) By superimposing images of several of the kidney’s filtering units, known as nephrons, researchers can visualize how little these structures deviate from a stereotypical developmental trajectory.
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