Mature induced-pluripotent-stem-cell-derived human podocytes reconstitute kidney glomerular-capillary-wall function on a chip

An in vitro model of the human kidney glomerulus—the major site of blood filtration—could facilitate drug discovery and illuminate kidney-disease mechanisms. Microfluidic organ-on-a-chip technology has been used to model the human proximal tubule, yet a kidney-glomerulus-on-a-chip has not been possible because of the lack of functional human podocytes—the cells that regulate selective permeability in the glomerulus. Here, we demonstrate an …