PhD defence Helen Kearney

Keywords: Kidney organoids, Drug safety testing, Stem-cell derived models

"Piecing Together the Kidney Organoid Puzzle: Strategies to Improve Models for Drug Testing"

Many promising drugs fail during development because existing laboratory models cannot accurately predict how the human kidney will respond. This thesis focused on improving kidney organoids, miniature tissues resembling the kidney that are grown from human stem cells, to make them more reliable tools for drug testing.

Several complementary strategies were investigated. The research showed that a simple pretreatment of stem cells improved the formation of kidney organoids. Methods were also developed to better analyse organoids grown within biomaterials, enabling more reliable assessment of their molecular characteristics. In addition, biomaterials and bioprinting approaches were explored to create more controlled and reproducible three-dimensional culture environments. Finally, kidney organoids were combined with vascularized scaffolds, biological matrices, and perfusion systems to promote the development of vascular-like networks.

Together, these advances help create more reproducible and physiologically relevant kidney models, supporting safer medicine development, reducing reliance on animal testing, and advancing the use of human-based laboratory models in biomedical research.

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