Overview
Laboratory of Kidney Toxicology And RegenerationVishal S. Vaidya, Ph.D.Principal Investigator
The kidney is highly susceptible to toxicity due to several biological, chemical and physical agents. Kidneys, just like the liver, have a dramatic capacity to recover from the injury by mounting an effective and optimal regeneration response.
Currently we are investigating whether the genetic programming factors involved in differentiation or nephrogenesis are also involved in dedifferentiation, reprogramming and redifferentiation during adult epithelial repair following injury. This aim will help us better characterize the multipotent renal progenitor cells that give rise to kidneys and their potential role during recovery from kidney injury. We are using several rodent kidney toxicity/injury models and applying functional genomics and gene arrays for identifying these novel factors.
A major focus in our laboratory is towards directed differentiation of embryonic stem cells to cells that resemble structurally and functionally to renal proximal tubular epithelium for high throughput predictive nephrotoxicity assessment. We are using lineage selection with genetically modified mouse embryonic stem (mES) cells that express mesodermal and renal progenitor promoter and reporter system. It is our hope that such a high throughput-screening assay will be a valuable tool in drug development and toxicology
In addition we are also interested in identifying and evaluating novel biomarkers and novel technologies to quantitate these biomarkers for early detection of kidney toxicity. We recently evaluated a microbead-based assay to quantitate urinary Kim-1 in several preclinical and clinical models of kidney injury. Currently we are conducting extensive performance evaluation of a lateral flow assay and various nanoscale platforms for biomarker quantitation. Developing and validating a bedside/”at-home” technology for non-invasive detection of the onset and severity of kidney injury thereby actively altering the course of therapy will be very beneficial in renal medicine.
