Breaking Through the Nephron Barrier: A New Way to Deliver Targeted Therapies Directly Inside the Kidney

What is the name of your invention?

An Endoscopic Device for Retronephron Delivery of Therapeutics

What's your discovery?

Kidney nephrons, which filter the blood and create urine, have a biological barrier that makes therapeutic targeting of the nephron very difficult. I've created a device that can get into the nephron "backwards," so to speak, circumventing the barrier. This can be used to deliver any drug or therapy directly into the nephron without having to go through the rest of the body first.

What motivated you to do this research?

Many kidney nephron-related diseases can't be treated because we can't bring drugs and other therapeutic agents in physical contact with those cells.  As a urologist who spends a lot of time working inside the kidney, I’ve been thinking a lot of about how to make contact. I’m excited about our preliminary results with this device, and I can’t wait to see what we can do with the technology.

"We can now start delivering new therapies - gene therapies in particular - to the kidney and treat a wide range of diseases without risking side effects to the rest of the body. " - Dr. Heiko Yang

What near-term milestones around your discovery are you most excited about?

We are planning to use this strategy to perform gene editing in a human kidney as proof of concept.

What future directions do you wish to expand this discovery?

My plan is to test this device with a number of therapeutics for different diseases to see if we can make an impact.

Any shout outs you'd like to give?

I'd like to highlight Mustafa Saeed, a medical student, who has been helping me on this project and has put together some really nice figures.  

Learn more about Dr. Yang's work here.