Multivariate patterning of human pluripotent cells under perfusion reveals critical roles of induced paracrine factors in kidney organoid development

Abstract

Creating complex multicellular kidney organoids from pluripotent stem cells show great promise. Further improvements in differentiation outcomes, patterning, and maturation of specific cell types are, however, intrinsically limited by standard tissue culture approaches. We describe a novel full factorial microbioreactor array–based methodology to achieve rapid interrogation and optimization of this complex multicellular differentiation process in a facile manner. We successfully recapitulate early kidney tissue patterning events, exploring more than 1000 unique conditions in an unbiased and quantitative manner, and define new media combinations that achieve near-pure renal cell type specific..