Research identifies key factor leading to cell cycle arrest and fibrosis production in the kidney

Mini-kidney organoid (2 mm dimaeter) grown from pluripotent stem cells.

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FDA-approval required before clinical use

A new blood test has the potential to reveal whether a person recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes is already at risk for kidney failure—information that might allow physicians to alter the course of treatment and slow disease progression.

This is the hope of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who recently demonstrated that a laboratory test could detect, in the blood of mice and humans, the...

More than 15 years after the discovery of kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) by Joseph Bonventre, MD, PhD, researchers in the HSCI Kidney Disease Program—of which Bonventre is a member—have found that the molecule promotes the scar tissue formation typically associated with chronic kidney disease, which affects approximately 9-10 percent of the world’s population. The finding was made in mice.... Read more about Kidney injury molecule linked to chronic kidney disease