BDRC SEMINAR SERIES
Amnah A Alharbi, Developmental Biology & Cancer Programme, ICH
9th October 2015, 1pm
Leolin Price Lecture Theatre, ICH
PhD Upgrade: Utilising an ex-vivo approach to understand human
nephrogenesis
Abstract
Gene pathways involved in nephron formation are extensively studied in rodents through
lineage tracing strategies; the same approach cannot be applied to humans, consequently in
vitro methods are required to investigate human nephrogenesis. Recent studies have shown
that dissociated and then re-aggregated mouse embryonic kidney cells maintain the capacity
to form renal structures, thus recapitulating normal nephron development. We applied this
method to human kidney cells to show whether it is possible to form normal renal structure
from single cell suspension as seen in mouse. Previous murine studies were conducted on
early stages of kidney development however, the equivalent stages are not available for
human tissues; therefore we assessed the possibility of recapitulating nephrogenesis with
older mouse stages more akin to our human samples. These techniques provide tools to
discover and to understand nephrogenesis in both human and mouse.