![\"Kidney-on-a-chip](\"https:\/\/sop.washington.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kidney-on-a-chip-team_500x400.png\")
UWSOP Assistant Professor and Kidney Research Institute Investigator Cathy Yeung \u201805 and her team\u2014composed of Ed Kelly, Benjamin \u201cBeno\u201d Freedman, along with Kenneth Thummel \u201887, and Jonathan Himmelfarb\u2014have been awarded a contract for their study titled, Extended Culture of Kidney MPS and Organoids to Model Acute and Chronic Exposure to Drugs and Environmental Toxins.<\/p>\n
This study is one of eight projects chosen for funding from 2022\u20132025 by NASA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).<\/p>\n
\u201cFinding kidney disease cures and preventing kidney disease progression demands immediate action and requires innovative strategies and models,\u201d said Yeung. \u201cOur team has approached the challenge by developing two innovative models.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, these models are generally used to test limited (days to weeks) exposures to drugs or other stressors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe propose to extend the use of our systems to model longer exposures, up to six months, to stressors and subsequent recovery,\u201d Yeung added.<\/p>\n
The goal of their study is to develop increased longevity kidney MPS and organoids. This will allow better understanding of chronic kidney disease and the prediction of chronic toxicity and injury.<\/p>\n
Doctors and drug makers can use the information to accelerate drug development and can guide the development of strategies to prevent or mitigate nephrotoxicity caused by drugs, environmental chemicals, pathogens, and microgravity.<\/p>\n