Kidney Development, Disease, Repair and Regeneration

Professor Melissa Little is an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and is a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia. An alumnus of The University of Queensland, Australia, she worked for more than 20 years at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, where her research has focused on the molecular basis of kidney development, renal disease, and repair. She is internationally recognized both for her work on the systems biology of kidney development and also for her pioneering studies into potential regenerative therapies in the kidney. Her research now focuses on the generation of mini-kidneys from patient stem cells for use in drug screening and disease modelling. Professor Little is a recipient of the GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence (2005), Gottschalk Medal (2004), Eisenhower Fellowship (2006) and a Boorhaave Professorship (2015). From 2007-2008, she served as the Chief Scientific Officer at the Australian Stem Cell Centre and is currently the Vice President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research. Professor Little is also on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Society for Nephrology, Kidney International, Development and Developmental Biology. Her appreciation for the wonder of developmental biology also stems from her role as the mother of two beautiful children.

Section 1: Development

Development - Introduction

1. Zebrafish renal development and regeneration

2. Early specification and patterning of the intermediate mesoderm: genetics and epigenetics

3. The human kidney: parallels in structure, spatial development and timing of nephrogenesis

4. Growth factor signalling in UB branching

5. Quantification of branching morphogenesis

6. Transcriptional regulation of the nephrogenic mesenchyme and its progeny

7. The role of growth factors in balancing cap mesenchyme survival and differentiation

8. Notch signalling in nephron segmentation

9. Genetic and epigenetic regulation of nephron number in the human

10. Formation and maintenance of a functional glomerulus

11. Maturation and roles of collecting ducts and loops of Henle in renal medulla development

12. Balancing self-renewal and differentiation: the role of the stroma

13. The origin and regulation of the renal vasculature

Section 2: Disease

Disease - Introduction

14. Variation in nephron number and association with disease.

15. The effect of the in utero environment on nephrogenesis and renal function

16. Persistence of the nephrogenic mesenchyme in disease: the role of WT1

17. Wnts, Notch and tubular pathology

18. Regulation of ureteric bud outgrowth and the consequences of disrupted development

19. Abnormal ureter-bladder connections are associated

20. Polycystic kidney disease: underlying causes, consequences and variation between mouse and man.

21. Genetic aspects of human congenital anomalies of kidney and urinary tract

22. Inherited kidney disorders in the age of genomics

23. Fibrosis: a failure of normal repair and a common pathway to organ failure

Section 3: Repair

Repair - Introduction

24. Postnatal cell turnover in the nephron epithelium: what can this tell us

25. Plasticity within the collecting ducts: what role does this play in response to injury

26. The onset and resolution of renal fibrosis: a human perspective

27. Chronic renal damage: how does this suppress normal repair processes

28. Investigating the process of renal epithelial repair to develop new therapies

29. Evidence for renal progenitors in the human kidney

30. The papilla as a source of kidney progenitors

31. A positive role for the macrophage in renal repair

32. The use of MSCs for treating acute renal injury and modulating rejection

Section 4: Regeneration

Regeneration - Introduction

33. Reprogramming to the nephron progenitor state

34. From development to regeneration: kidney reconstitution in vitro and in vivo.

35. Directing the differentiation of pluripotent cells to renal endpoints

36. Patient-derived iPS cells: what can they teach us?

37. Xenotransplantation in the kidney: an historical perspective

38. The use of the nephrogenic niche of a xeno-embryo for commitment to kidney

39. Human fetal kidneys for renal regenerative medicine: from rudiments to nephron stem/progenitor cells

40. Renal replacement approaches using deceased donor sources

41. Tissue Engineering through Additive Manufacturing: Hope for a bioengineered kidney?

42. Decellularised scaffolds for the recreation of organs