Beno Freedman featured on NIH Director’s Blog
Benjamin Freedman, featured on the NIH Director’s Blog
The groundbreaking work of Dr. Benjamin (Beno) Freedman, associate professor (nephrology) and a KRI Researcher, was recently featured in the Director’s Blog of the National Institute of Health (NIH).
NIH Director’s Blog: “Chipping Away at the Causes of Polycystic Kidney Disease
By Lawrence Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D
It’s often said that two is better than one.
It’s often said that two is better than one. That’s true whether driving across the country, renovating a kitchen, or looking for a misplaced set of car keys. But a recent study shows this old saying also applies to modeling a kidney disease with two very complementary, cutting-edge technologies: an organoid
Using this one-two approach at the lab bench, the researchers modeled in just a few weeks different aspects of the fluid-filled cysts that form in polycystic kidney disease (PKD
These powerful technologies revealed that blood glucose plays a role in causing the cysts. They also showed the cysts form via a different biological mechanism than previously thought. These new leads, if confirmed, offer a whole new way of thinking about PKD cysts, and more exciting, how to prevent or slow the disease in millions of people worldwide.
These latest findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, come from Benjamin Freedman and colleagues at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle [1]. While much is known about the genetic causes of PKD, Freedman, and team realized there’s still much to learn about the basics of how cysts form in the kidney’s tiny tubes, or tubules
