Transcriptional Profiling of In Vivo Derived Human Kidney Tissue Using Single Cell RNA Sequencing

Key Personnel

Jason Spence (PI)
University of Michigan

• Cristina Cebrian Ligero
  University of Michigan
• Edgar Otto
  University of Michigan

Project Description

Human pluripotent stem cell derived organoid models, including kidney organoids, are most similar to fetal tissue in vitro. Therefore, while the goal of directed differentiation is to generate bona fide mature, functional cell types or organ-like systems, it is critical to have a comprehensive understanding of in vitro derived tissues relative to immature and mature human tissue. By extension, it is important to have high quality, reproducible and accessible in vivo human-tissue derived data sets in order to confidently benchmark in vitro studies. However, significant limitations exist for purifying specific populations of cells from rare human tissue samples to obtain cell-specific transcriptional profiles. The goal of this proposal is to provide high quality transcriptome data from the developing and adult human kidney using single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq), which is an unbiased approach that does not rely on specific reagents or bulk populations of cells.