Human Kidney Organoid Platforms for Disease Modeling and Regenerative Med.

About Speaker:

Dr. Zhongwei Li is an Associate Professor of Medicine and of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Dr. Li earned his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University and completed postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. As a stem cell biologist, Dr. Li leverages advanced model systems, including human pluripotent stem cells, kidney progenitor cells, organoids, and assembloids, to investigate stem cell biology, organ regeneration, and disease mechanisms. His laboratory’s ultimate mission is to engineer transplantable, stem cell-derived kidneys as off-the- shelf solutions for replacement therapy. In the near term, his team focuses on developing next-generation kidney organoid and assembloid models with the enhanced maturity and function required for precision drug discovery and disease modeling. Dr. Li’s pioneering work is supported by the NIH, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), and the University Kidney Research Organization (UKRO). His contributions to the field have been recognized with the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2022) and the Young Investigator Award from the Chinese American Society of Nephrology (2025).

About Talk:

Chronic kidney disease affects one in seven adults and frequently progresses to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Because current survival relies strictly on dialysis or transplantation, the acute shortage of donor organs claims approximately 13 lives daily in the United States alone. To address this crisis, our lab leverages the natural self-assembly principles of kidney progenitors that drive organogenesis. Utilizing human pluripotent stem cells, we developed robust protocols to efficiently differentiate, purify, and expand key kidney progenitor cell populations. Under optimized inductive conditions, these progenitors self-organize into spatially patterned, functional kidney tissues known as kidney organoids. By integrating bioengineering strategies with genome editing and functional genomics, these stem cell-derived human kidney organoid platforms offer powerful, scalable models for advanced disease modeling, targeted drug discovery, and future regenerative therapeutics.