Name: Annie Ryan

Institution: UT Southwestern Medical Center

Grant: Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Award (2019)

Project Title: Elucidating Vascular Signals in Nephron Formation Using Human Organoids
 

How would you sum up your research in one sentence?

• My research aims to merge developmental biology and tissue engineering to study blood vessel signaling during tissue formation.
   

Provide a brief overview of the research you will conduct with help from the grant.

• My research is focused on understanding the role blood vessels play in the development of the kidney. I am particularly interested in uncovering the signals generated by endothelial cells that direct nephron maturation. I am using a microfluidics device to culture kidney organoids in a 3D environment containing a functional (i.e., open to blood flow) capillary network. I hypothesize that this unique approach to organoid culture will improve tissue survival and maturation, as large and complex tissues depend upon vascularization for their development and survival. 
   

What impact do you hope your research will have on patients?

• New patients are continually added to the kidney transplant waiting list, but there are not enough donor kidneys available. My research will lead to a better understanding of tissue engineering, helping to pave the way for lab-grown kidneys, removing the dependence on donors.
   

What are your short and long-term career goals?

• During my Ph.D., I hope to identify angiocrine factors important for kidney development. In pursuit of my long-term goal of being a professor at a primarily undergraduate institution, I next plan to pursue further training as a postdoctoral trainee in the stem cell and regenerative medicine field.
   

What inspired you to focus your research on the kidney?

• I was driven to focus on kidney biology by the clear and desperate need amongst patients around the world. The drastic rise in patients who need kidney donations and the scarcity of available kidneys is astounding to me. I am motivated by the hope that my research may one day lead to improving the lives of CKD patients.
   

What are the major challenges to beginning a career in kidney research today?

• One major challenge with kidney research is that we are producing data at a faster pace than it is being processed. With techniques such as single-cell RNA-sequencing becoming more easily available, there is an abundance of data generated by many labs. While this is immensely valuable, most labs are not equipped to fully assess these data and take advantage of them, particularly without bioinformatics training. To remedy this problem, we need to create a standardized platform to combine the efforts of independent labs and advance the field as a whole.
   

What advice would you give to others to encourage them to apply for this grant funding?

• When deep in your project, it is easy to get caught up in the minute details. Writing this grant helped me take a broader perspective and think about the future impact my research could have. The inspiration that process gave me helped renew my efforts with greater vigor. I would also like to mention that you do not need to be in a lab that has an extremely strong kidney research background to receive this grant. Coming from a different background may actually be advantageous because you have a unique viewpoint.
   

Something you may not know about me is…

• If I were not a scientist, I would have liked to be a historian.

In my free time I like to…

• I like to garden, knit hats for cats, and bake cakes for my lab mates.