NIH Director's New Innovator Award recipient
Dr. Ryuji Morizane received the NIH Director's New Innovator Award for work recreating kidney organogenesis in vitro with human pluripotent stem cells.
Morizane Lab
Building Human Kidney Models to Accelerate Translational Discovery
The Morizane Lab develops human iPSC-derived kidney organoids, patient-derived disease models, organ-on-chip systems, and AI-assisted imaging platforms to study kidney disease and advance safer, more effective therapeutic development.
Mission
A human kidney innovation platform
We build human kidney models to understand kidney disease, improve therapy development, evaluate kidney safety, and accelerate translational discovery. Our work connects stem cell biology, nephrology, bioengineering, imaging, computational analysis, and therapeutic development.
Core message
Human kidney organoids can help researchers study disease mechanisms, evaluate therapeutic strategies, and ask kidney-specific safety questions in a human genetic and cellular context.
Impact & Recognition
Credibility for high-risk translational research
Pioneer in human kidney organoid technology
The lab's work helped establish human pluripotent stem cell-derived nephron organoids and protocols for kidney organoid generation.
Patented and translational technologies
Lab-developed technologies have contributed to patented and patent-pending approaches in kidney organoids, organ-on-chip systems, ARPKD, and regenerative biology.
MGH / Harvard physician-scientist lab
The lab brings together academic nephrology, stem cell biology, bioengineering, imaging, and therapeutic discovery within the Mass General / Harvard ecosystem.
High-impact peer-reviewed publications
Selected studies span Nature Biotechnology, Nature Protocols, Nature Methods, Science Translational Medicine, Science Advances, PNAS, Biofabrication, and related journals.
Human models for translational questions
Our platforms support disease modeling, kidney injury and repair studies, nephrotoxicity, AAV kidney response research, and therapeutic discovery.
Why Human Kidney Models Matter
Human biology is essential for kidney translation.
Traditional models often fail to fully predict human kidney responses to injury, drugs, and gene therapies. Human kidney organoids provide a complementary platform to study kidney disease mechanisms and evaluate therapeutic strategies in a human genetic and cellular context.
Our Platforms
Integrated human kidney systems for discovery and translation
Human kidney organoids
Human iPSC-derived kidney tissues for modeling nephron development, injury, repair, and disease.
Patient-derived iPSC models
Kidney organoids carrying disease-relevant genetic backgrounds for mechanism-focused studies.
Vascularized kidney organoids
Advanced tissue systems for studying vascularization, maturation, and regenerative biology.
Organ-on-chip systems
Microphysiological kidney models incorporating flow and physical cues relevant to tissue function.
AI-assisted 3D imaging
Automated imaging and quantitative phenotyping for high-content organoid analysis.
Gene therapy kidney response models
Human kidney organoid systems to explore AAV-associated kidney responses and related safety questions.
Injury and repair models
Models for AKI, CKD progression, fibrosis, tubular repair, and therapeutic target validation.
Single-cell and molecular profiling
Molecular readouts that can be incorporated when appropriate for the scientific question.
Genetic kidney disease
Modeling polycystic kidney disease and other inherited disorders in human kidney organoid systems.
Injury and repair
Studying mechanisms of kidney injury, repair, fibrosis, and progression toward chronic kidney disease.
Therapeutic safety
Developing human-relevant systems to study gene therapy safety, kidney toxicity, and drug response.
Research credibility
Built on peer-reviewed organoid and organ-on-chip research
The lab's work spans kidney organoid generation, organoid vascularization, injury and repair biology, ARPKD organoid-on-chip disease modeling, automated 3D imaging, and gene therapy safety studies in human kidney organoids.
Support our research
Help launch high-risk, high-impact kidney research.
Philanthropic support helps launch innovative, early-stage human kidney research that may be difficult to support through traditional funding mechanisms. Gifts should be made through the official Mass General giving system and designated to Dr. Ryuji Morizane or kidney organoid research under Dr. Ryuji Morizane.
Collaborate with us
Industry partnerships for translational kidney research
We welcome sponsored research and collaborative projects with biotechnology, pharmaceutical, gene therapy, imaging, AI drug discovery, and kidney disease companies. Located in the Boston biomedical ecosystem, our lab can rapidly initiate collaborative studies using established human kidney organoid platforms through appropriate institutional agreements.
Partnership areas
Sponsored research, disease modeling, nephrotoxicity, AAV kidney response studies, AI imaging, organ-on-chip systems, and platform development.
Lab updates
Research highlights for patients, donors, collaborators, and scientists
Understanding acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease
How human kidney organoids help researchers ask what happens after kidney cells are injured.
Faster drug discovery with AI-powered kidney organoid analysis
Why three-dimensional imaging and quantitative analysis matter for kidney organoid research.
Building better human models for kidney disease
How fluid flow and microphysiological systems can improve human disease modeling.