Rajiv Dhir (Contact PI)
University of Pittsburgh
We have preliminary data that we can isolate human genitourinary tissues (kidneys, ureters and bladders) from various developmental ages (6-24 weeks). We have produced publication quality histological images of the developing urogenital organs (including kidneys and bladder), and have immunostained kidneys for endothelium, nephron progenitors and early-differentiated nephron structures and bladders for the urothelium and muscle layers. We have utilized Dynabeads® to separate distinct cellular subpopulations in the kidney including: nephron progenitors, ureteric epithelium, podocytes and endothelium, and have confirmed that we can produce high quality material that is appropriate for RNA sequencing. We propose to act as both the GUDMAP Tissue Hub and Tissue Gathering site to build upon the pre-existing HSTB and provide top quality genitourinary samples to members of the scientific community including those within GUDMAP.