Levtchenko Lab

Research focus

ERC Consolidator Grant · 2021

NEONATAL KIDNEY STEM PROGENITOR CELLS AS A NOVEL TYPE OF CELL THERAPY

Global mortality from chronic kidney disease (CKD) is estimated at more than 1.2 million annually. CKD is caused by the irreversible loss of nephrons, the structural and functional units of the kidney. Lineage tracing revealed that all renal cells are derived from a SIX2+ embryonic progenitor population originating at the cap mesenchyme (CM). SIX2 is essential for cells’ self-renewal, and its cessation signals the initiation of nephron differentiation. However, SIX2+ progenitor cells are exhausted in the mature kidney. My team has recently discovered a novel unique source of kidney stem/progenitor cells (nKSPCs) derived from the urine of neonates born before the completion of nephrogenesis.…

From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.