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The aim of the project is the development of an artificial lab-on-a-chip based cellular kidney model suitable for animal-free substance testing, renal disease and injury models for research as well as for the individualized therapy with an implantable renal replacement system.

Three-dimensional organotypic tissue cultures of the kidney are currently still rare however, are of increasing interest for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry as well as for medical research since they mimic the tissue and cell functions significantly better than classical two-dimensional cell culture models. In this project, models of the glomerular filtration barrier and of the tubule will be established which should be finally combined to a joint kidney model. Development will start with membrane-based models and continue with more complex hollow strand-based models. For the realization of such 3D-scaffold structures consisting of hollow strands, which can be microfluidically perfused and simultaneously surrounded by a liquid from the outside, the technique of 3D plotting of biopolymer-based hollow strands will be applied and developed further. Materials as well as strategies will be developed with the aim to achieve directed colonization of the lumen and the outside of the hollow strands with kidney-specific cells.