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Interpreting the Geometry and Rhythm of Early Kidney Formation for Synthetic Morphogenesis

Congenital and adult kidney diseases disrupt kidney function for at least 10% of the population over their lifetimes. One problem that affects disease risk is that kidneys vary greatly between people, for example in the number of nephrons formed during development. Several open questions impede therapeutic progress, for example, what sets nephron differentiation rate? How are tissue compartments balanced across the organ during development? What kidney morphologies are permitted or forbidden by physical constraints? I will highlight recent progress in our understanding of geometric, mechanical and cell state rhythms in nephron-forming niches during kidney development that are instructive to organoid engineering. I will also outline other engineering problems we are tackling to enable a new wave of kidney regenerative medicine technologies.