Developmental Programming of Human Kidney Function

Seventy years of developmental studies have identified the cellular framework and key developmental mechanisms underpinning mammalian kidney development. This understanding has centered on rodent research, where developmental genetics in the mouse has played a particularly important role. Over the last decade, the application of developmental insight to human pluripotent stem cells, generating human cell and organoid models, has spotlighted therapeutic opportunity. This review considers human kidney development and how developmental insight is being applied toward the generation of functional human kidney cell types in pluripotent stem cell–derived kidney models and provides a perspective on advancing models for clinical impact.