Sci-Tech Information: 3D Printed Mini-Kidneys For Toxicology Testing
Researchers are one step closer to printing 3D human kidney tissue thanks to a partnership between The University of Queensland (UQ) and US biotechnology company, Organovo.
UQ, via its commercialization company UniQuest, has signed an agreement with San Diego-based Organovo, which specializes in 3D printing of human tissues. Under the agreement, Organovo will work with UQ researchers Professor Melissa Little and Professor Justin Cooper-White to ultimately produce 3D printed mini-kidneys.
Professor Little, from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience, said 3D printing of fully functional kidney tissue would lead to better disease modeling and drug development.
€We will be able to grow mini-organs from the cells of patients with genetic kidney disease, both to better understand the nature of their disease and to test treatments that may improve renal function,€ she said.
€These mini-kidneys could also be used to test the safety of new drugs. The sad fact is that most new drugs fail during testing in humans and a big reason for that is that they turn out to be toxic to kidneys. If we can test a drug for kidney toxicity before commencing human trials we'll save lot of time, effort and, of course, money,€ she said.
Professor Cooper-White, from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, has developed technology that permits stem cells to be cultured under thousands of different conditions. This technology allows researchers to determine the best conditions for prompting stem cells to develop into tissue cells, include kidney cells.
Professor Cooper-White said it took thousands of different cells on a large scale to create a functional mini-kidney suitable for drug and toxicity screening.
€The mini-kidneys being developed need to closely resemble the human organ so we can be confident that drug screening in the lab will generate the same response,€ Professor Cooper-White said.
€We believe our microbioreactor technology provides an environment more akin to that of a living human body, enabling us to provide cells with the optimum conditions needed to achieve the end objective of 3D printed mini-kidneys.€
Avoidable kidney problems kill at least 15,000 people a year
Between 15,000 and 40,000 kidney patients in British hospitals may be dying from poor care a year, according to a study commissioned by the NHS which found that good basic nursing could prevent those deaths which they call "completely unacceptable". VoR's Tim Walklate spoke to Fiona Loud, policy director at the British Kidney Patient Association.
Acute kidney injury or AKI as it is known medically, comes from patients becoming dangerously dehydrated while they are already vulnerable in hospital.
Experts have stated that they believe AKI can be easily prevented through good basic care from doctors and nurses and there is no reason so many people should die each year.
Fiona Loud told VoR: "This report shows the depth of the severity and gives evidence to support just quite how serious acute kidney injury is.
"It can affect one in five people coming into hospitals who are acutely ill. We have an ageing population and many people who have cardio vascular diseases such as heart failure are at risk as their kidney's are likely to detiriorate when admitted to hospital because they are already compromised.
"It is a matter of basic care and joining up care. The report gives us the evidence where people should be commissioning the improvements in care. The NHS have already started work with various people including us at the British Kidney Patient Association to address the challenges. It's sort of a national partnership board where we are going through all of the different issues around people's risk and measuring AKI properly.
AKI costs the health service more than 1bn every year, according to a study commissioned by NHS Improving Quality.
AstraZeneca, Shenzhen Uni To Study Chronic Kidney Disease
AstraZeneca will collaborate with Shenzhen University Health Science Center to conduct pre-clinical research on chronic kidney disease, a large and growing unmet medical need in China.
Under the terms of the agreement, scientists from Shenzhen University Health Science Center's Nephrology and Urology Center will work in collaboration with teams from AstraZeneca's Innovation Center China in Shanghai. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
As a priority, the partners will focus on diabetic nephropathy, damage to the kidneys caused by diabetes, which, in severe cases, can lead to kidney failure. While not all diabetes patients have kidney damage, it is growing at an exponential rate in China. Between 2010 and 2025, the number of patients who experience kidney failure as a result of diabetic complications is expected to increase nearly 80 percent in China, to over 18 million patients.
Director of Shenzhen University Health Science Center and one of China's foremost kidney disease experts, Professor Youfei Guan, said: €Chronic kidney disease is growing rapidly in China and caring for advanced chronic kidney disease is extremely costly.€
€We also see this program not just as an opportunity to help us discover new treatments but also a unique possibility for joint talent development.€ commented Xiaolin Zhang, head of AstraZeneca's Innovation Center China.
Science & Technology World Website makes efforts to build a platform for showing enterprise's brand.
UQ, via its commercialization company UniQuest, has signed an agreement with San Diego-based Organovo, which specializes in 3D printing of human tissues. Under the agreement, Organovo will work with UQ researchers Professor Melissa Little and Professor Justin Cooper-White to ultimately produce 3D printed mini-kidneys.
Professor Little, from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience, said 3D printing of fully functional kidney tissue would lead to better disease modeling and drug development.
€We will be able to grow mini-organs from the cells of patients with genetic kidney disease, both to better understand the nature of their disease and to test treatments that may improve renal function,€ she said.
€These mini-kidneys could also be used to test the safety of new drugs. The sad fact is that most new drugs fail during testing in humans and a big reason for that is that they turn out to be toxic to kidneys. If we can test a drug for kidney toxicity before commencing human trials we'll save lot of time, effort and, of course, money,€ she said.
Professor Cooper-White, from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, has developed technology that permits stem cells to be cultured under thousands of different conditions. This technology allows researchers to determine the best conditions for prompting stem cells to develop into tissue cells, include kidney cells.
Professor Cooper-White said it took thousands of different cells on a large scale to create a functional mini-kidney suitable for drug and toxicity screening.
€The mini-kidneys being developed need to closely resemble the human organ so we can be confident that drug screening in the lab will generate the same response,€ Professor Cooper-White said.
€We believe our microbioreactor technology provides an environment more akin to that of a living human body, enabling us to provide cells with the optimum conditions needed to achieve the end objective of 3D printed mini-kidneys.€
Avoidable kidney problems kill at least 15,000 people a year
Between 15,000 and 40,000 kidney patients in British hospitals may be dying from poor care a year, according to a study commissioned by the NHS which found that good basic nursing could prevent those deaths which they call "completely unacceptable". VoR's Tim Walklate spoke to Fiona Loud, policy director at the British Kidney Patient Association.
Acute kidney injury or AKI as it is known medically, comes from patients becoming dangerously dehydrated while they are already vulnerable in hospital.
Experts have stated that they believe AKI can be easily prevented through good basic care from doctors and nurses and there is no reason so many people should die each year.
Fiona Loud told VoR: "This report shows the depth of the severity and gives evidence to support just quite how serious acute kidney injury is.
"It can affect one in five people coming into hospitals who are acutely ill. We have an ageing population and many people who have cardio vascular diseases such as heart failure are at risk as their kidney's are likely to detiriorate when admitted to hospital because they are already compromised.
"It is a matter of basic care and joining up care. The report gives us the evidence where people should be commissioning the improvements in care. The NHS have already started work with various people including us at the British Kidney Patient Association to address the challenges. It's sort of a national partnership board where we are going through all of the different issues around people's risk and measuring AKI properly.
AKI costs the health service more than 1bn every year, according to a study commissioned by NHS Improving Quality.
AstraZeneca, Shenzhen Uni To Study Chronic Kidney Disease
AstraZeneca will collaborate with Shenzhen University Health Science Center to conduct pre-clinical research on chronic kidney disease, a large and growing unmet medical need in China.
Under the terms of the agreement, scientists from Shenzhen University Health Science Center's Nephrology and Urology Center will work in collaboration with teams from AstraZeneca's Innovation Center China in Shanghai. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
As a priority, the partners will focus on diabetic nephropathy, damage to the kidneys caused by diabetes, which, in severe cases, can lead to kidney failure. While not all diabetes patients have kidney damage, it is growing at an exponential rate in China. Between 2010 and 2025, the number of patients who experience kidney failure as a result of diabetic complications is expected to increase nearly 80 percent in China, to over 18 million patients.
Director of Shenzhen University Health Science Center and one of China's foremost kidney disease experts, Professor Youfei Guan, said: €Chronic kidney disease is growing rapidly in China and caring for advanced chronic kidney disease is extremely costly.€
€We also see this program not just as an opportunity to help us discover new treatments but also a unique possibility for joint talent development.€ commented Xiaolin Zhang, head of AstraZeneca's Innovation Center China.
Science & Technology World Website makes efforts to build a platform for showing enterprise's brand.
