Wenzheng Zhang
Albany Medical College, NY·Physiology
Can an adult kidney make new cells to replace ones that die? Mammalian kidneys do regenerate cells after normal turnover and after injury, but whether the adult organ holds true progenitor cells — cells that can renew themselves and give rise to several mature cell types — has been fiercely debated.
- Fields
Physiology
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
kidney
renal progenitor cells
Aqp2
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2028
What they work on
- Identify and validate the unique molecular signature of Aqp2+ progenitor cells — kidney cells expressing the water channel Aquaporin-2 plus V-ATPase subunits B1 and B2 — using fluorescent-protein-based cell sorting and single-cell RNA sequencing.
- Test the regenerative potential of these progenitors during normal tissue maintenance and after unilateral ureteral obstruction injury, using inducible Aqp2-based lineage tracing and thymidine analog labeling of dividing cells in mice.
- Determine whether the Notch ligand Jag1 regulates progenitor-driven repair of the connecting tubule and collecting duct, and link repair activity to Notch pathway activation.
- Compare the regenerative behavior of Aqp2+ progenitors in male versus female mice, testing sex as a regulator alongside Jag1 and distinguishing progenitor behavior from that of mature principal and intercalated cells.
More about the research
Answering this matters for understanding birth defects of the kidney and for regenerative medicine, including growing better kidney organoids in the lab.
Why it matters
Identifying genuine progenitor cells in the adult kidney would give regenerative medicine a concrete target: a defined marker set for isolating the human equivalents and a pathway, Notch via Jag1, that may control repair. It could also clarify how failed repair turns into kidney fibrosis, and guide efforts to grow more faithful kidney organoids in culture.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Stephanie Mutchler
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Physiology·Early-career
Determine how aldosterone and the mineralocorticoid receptor regulate Piezo1 levels and activity in the distal nephron, using tdTomato-tagged Piezo1 mice, RNAscope, immunostaining and calcium and current recordings from isolated collecting ducts.
Anne Nichols
University of Rochester, NY·Physiology·Early-career
Build a spatial and time-course atlas of how GLAST-lineage epitenon progenitors and Scx-expressing tenocytes respond to load. The approach combines genetic lineage tracing in mice with integrated spatial and single-cell RNA sequencing.
Yanlin Wang
University of Connecticut, CT·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine the role of PU.1, a transcription factor that switches on genes in immune cells, in macrophage activation and polarization, using cultured macrophages and mouse models of kidney injury.
The school
Albany Medical College: 3 labs on PI Pages, $23M a year on research, 8 research doctorates a year.
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