Rebuilding the kidney from stem cells

Presentation by Professor Melissa Little, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, to the Convergence Science Network on Thursday, 2 June 2016. Professor Melissa Little, who heads the Kidney Development, Disease and Regeneration Laboratory at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and is a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne and the lead author of the “Kidney in a Dish” publication, describe how they have managed to grow the mini kidneys from stem cells, what they can be used for now and what it means for the future of kidney disease. “Kidney in a Dish” was on the cover of “Nature“ in October last year - but how is it done and how far are we really from growing replacement kidneys for all who need them? In the USA 10% of the adult population have evidence of chronic kidney disease and in 2013 over 3.2 million patients worldwide received treatment for end stage kidney disease. To date, dialysis or a kidney transplant are the only viable treatment options.  Clearly there is an urgent and growing need for alternative therapies for renal disease.  Professor Melissa Little heads the Kidney Development, Disease and Regeneration Laboratory at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and is a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia. For more than 20 years her research has focussed on the molecular basis of kidney development, renal disease and repair. She is internationally recognised for her work on the systems biology of kidney development and also her pioneering studies into potential regenerative therapies in the kidney. Her work on the developing kidney has driven studies into the recreation of nephron stem cell populations via transcriptional reprogramming and directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. As a result, her research now focuses on the generation of mini-kidneys from stem cells for use in drug screening and disease modelling and bioengineering. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Professor Little’s work has been recognised by many awards, including the GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence (2005), AAS Gottschalk Medal in Medical Sciences (2004), Eisenhower Fellowship (2006), ANZSCDB Presidents Medal (2015) and a Boorhaave Professorship, Leiden University (2015). A graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, she founded Nephrogenix Pty Ltd and from 2007-2008, she served as the Chief Scientific Officer at the Australian Stem Cell Centre. Melissa is Vice President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research and a member of Stem Cells Australia. She currently serves as a Special Editor for Development and on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Society for Nephrology, Kidney International and Developmental Biology.