Postdoctoral Researcher 'Advanced renal cell models for regenerative medicine' (1.0 FTE)
PartagerInstitution: University of Utrecht
Pays-Bas
We offer a vacancy for a Postdoctoral Researcher within a multidisciplinary collaboration within Utrecht Life Sciences disciplines at Pharmaceutical Sciences, UMC Utrecht's Department of Nephrology and Hypertension and the Hubrecht Institute.
Worldwide, the number of patients with end-stage kidney disease necessitating dialysis or transplantation is reaching epidemic proportions. Kidney transplantation currently offers the best treatment option but is associated with limited transplant availability and rejection. Therefore, innovative strategies to regenerate kidneys or to provide renal replacement therapies are warranted. Organoid technology has the potential to bring the generation of functional kidney tissue within reach. Kidney organoids have been generated from iPS cells and we have recently established another milestone by creating organoids from adult kidney tissue as well as from cells isolated from human urine, providing a source of autologous renal cells or tissue. Although organoid cultures allow expansion and differentiation of almost every renal cell type, current systems depend highly on cell-autonomous self-organization resulting in small and relatively immature structures. In addition, whereas organoids provide a powerful system to model human kidney development and disease, it has not been possible to direct cell differentiation and organization well enough to recapitulate in-vivo physiological function necessary for therapeutic application. Moreover, self-organization is unlikely to generate meso- and macroscale organ-level architectural or anatomical structures. The current versions of organoids are relatively immature structures, whose shape and size cannot yet be controlled, and that lack essential tissue elements such as blood- and lymph vessels and urinary drainage. Strategies to control and guide organoid development will be crucial for future RM applications. Furthermore, advances in bottom-up tissue engineering provide novel scalable methods to build complex 3D tissues relevant for organ regeneration.
As a Postdoctoral Researcher, you will:
design and perform scientific research in the area of renal cell systems, kidney organoids, human aPSCs and functional characterization; generate and analyze the data and write scientific publications and present findings at scientific meetings; work in an international team with other scientists to discuss, plan and perform research in a stimulating environment.
