This edition we are featuring the Davidson Group, as our laboratory of the month!
The Davidson Group conducts research in the fields of embryonic development and stem cells with a focus on the kidney.
While historically they have used zebrafish to investigate kidney formation and repair, they now predominately use human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells as a model system.
The introduction of iPS cell methodologies to the University of Auckland was pioneered by Dr Teresa Holm in the group and together with Dr Aneta Przepiorski, a novel method for generating human kidney organoids (small masses of kidney tissue) has been developed.
With funds from the Cystinosis Research Foundation (USA) and Cystinosis Ireland, these kidney organoids have been used to model the lysosomal storage disease, cystinosis, which causes kidney failure (Dr Holm, Dr Przepiorski and Dr Jennifer Hollywood).
In addition, in collaboration with Professor Peter Shepherd’s laboratory (led by Dr Brie Sorrenson), funded by the Maurice Wilkins Centre and a University of Auckland SRIF grant, the two groups have generated New Zealand’s first iPS cell lines from healthy volunteers. These cell lines will shortly be available to other laboratories interested in using iPS cells for their research. Associate Professor Alan Davidson has also used SRIF support to establish a CRISPR/Cas9
These cell lines will shortly be available to other laboratories interested in using iPS cells for their research. Associate Professor Alan Davidson has also used SRIF support to establish a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing facility within the VJU (led by Dr Prasanna Kallingappa), which will enable ‘knock-out’ and ‘knock-in’ rodents to be generated in-house.