The kidney grew and developed over months, allowing researchers to see the development of the organ in real time, isolate genes that lead to birth defects, develop new treatments in the field of regenerative medicine, and test the toxicity of drugs during pregnancy on fetal kidneys.

A paper describing this research is published in The EMBO Journal.

The current model has matured and stayed stable for over half a year. Previous kidney organoids mimicking development broke down within four weeks. This allows long-term research and medical testing on kidney models.

It is also the purest kidney organoid ever developed, with no cross-contamination from stem cell development. Previous models using pluripotent stem cells would develop other cellular structures due to the unstable nature of the stem cells. The new organoid only expresses kidney cells, allowing for clear cause-and-effect experiments.