There’s no doubt 2015 was a very good year for kidney development research. Many important developments,interesting papers and important new ideas. For me, three things clearly stand out…
First, the differentiation of human pluripotent cells to kidney organoids is now really coming of age (Takasato et al). Great for the development of better kidney replacement therapies, and already useful for many developmental studies.
Second, and my personal favorite, the nephron progenitor culture protocol published by the Oxburgh lab (Brown et al). I’ve had one project get stuck myself because of the impossibility to expand these cells in a proper manner/ This will male many new things possible. Especially the inclusion of a details and complete protocol is a treat.
And third on my list, the paper by Chen et al showing the first details on young and old nephrons. This provides an extra layer of complexity that cannot be ignored, and might be very relevant for our own work on Wilms’ tumours.
Exciting times, and promising a lot for 2016 :-).
Peter Hohenstein