Overview

Welcome to the Jain Lab.  Our mission is to understand development and diseases of the urogenital and nervous systems.  One of our main objective is to define how the kidneys and the lower urinary tract are organized to conduct their normal functions and the changes that occur in acute and chronic diseases across life span. By building this foundational knowledge and then using it as a benchmark to identify cells and molecules that alter during ageing or in disease, we hope to glean insights into slowing disease progression and extending the life span of the organ and the patient. This knowledge will be key in establishing the blueprint for engineering these organs to supplement kidney function.  We heavily use single cell and spatially resolved 2D and 3D multiomics technologies at cellular scale using human tissue to achieve our goals. We also use genetic models to further understand mechanisms of kidney development, regeneration and repair and harmonize model system and human datasets.

Research Questions

How many cell types are in the kidney?

How do the kidneys form?

How do the kidneys connect to the bladder?

What is the cellular and molecular composition of the kidney and how does it change during development through adulthood in health and disease?

Why do kidneys fail?

How does the nervous system regulate kidney, ureter and bladder development and function?

What is the molecular and cellular diversity in the neuro-uro interactions in homeostasis and disease?

How are the major, minor and rare cell types in the kidney organized and communicate with their neighborhoods to maintain homeostasis in health and disease?

Diseases of Interest

kidney and urinary tract malformations CAKUT

Chronic Kidney Disease CKD

End Stage Kidney Disease ESKD

Acute Kidney Injury AKI

Hypertension

Diabetic Nephropathy

Bladder Pain Syndrome BPS

Overactive Bladder

Interstitial Cystitis

Urinary Tract Infection

Technologies Currently Used to Address Research Questions

Single cell and nucleus sequencing using microfluidics and plate-based FACS-seq

Selective labeling and isolation of small number of neurons projecting to bladder and kidney 

Processing of small amount of human tissue for single cell applications with minimal artifacts.

Inducible genetically engineered mice

Kidney organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)

Whole exome and genome sequencing

Acute and chronic kidney and bladder injury using surgical, toxins and genetic methods

Multiomics (snRNAseq and snATACseq)

Spatially resolved transcriptomics