A key step toward growing human kidneys in the laboratory

Kidney disease affects one in nine adults globally and the incidence of kidney failure is steadily rising around the world. Being able to grow working kidney tissue in a laboratory could help accelerate medical treatments for kidney disease and restore kidney function. The kidney forms normally in humans as a result of two building blocks—metanephric mesenchyme and ureteric bud. The laboratory of Joseph Bonventre, MD, Ph.D., Chief of the Renal Unit and Founding Chief of the Engineering in Medicine Division at the Brigham, figured out how to generate the first building block—metanephric mesenchyme—resulting in many components of the kidney from human stem cells seven years ago.