Advances and challenges toward developing kidney organoids for clinical applications

Kidney organoids have enabled modeling of human development and disease. While methods of generating the nephron lineage are well established, new protocols to induce another lineage, the ureteric bud/collecting duct, have been reported in the past 5 years. Many reports have described modeling of various hereditary kidney diseases, with polycystic kidney disease serving as the archetypal disease, by using patient-derived or genome-edited kidney organoids. The generation of more organotypic kidneys is also becoming feasible. In this review, I also discuss the significant challenges for more sophisticated disease modeling and for realizing the ambitious goal of generating transplantable synthetic kidneys.

Automated summary

Kidney organoids provide a means to model human development and disease in vitro. While protocols for generating nephron lineage are well established, recent advancements have been made in inducing the ureteric bud/collecting duct lineage. Various hereditary kidney diseases, including polycystic kidney disease, have been modeled using patient-derived or genome-edited kidney organoids. The future goal of generating transplantable synthetic kidneys brings significant challenges for disease modeling and organotypic kidney development.