Regenerative MedicineSpatial Multi-Omics Maps Kidney Regeneration at Single-Cell Resolution
Researchers from Indiana University and the KPMP consortium combined spatial protein imaging (CODEX) with single-nucleus RNA sequencing to map the regenerative capacity of kidney proximal tubule cells in both healthy and diseased human tissue. By analyzing over 1.7 million cells across 58 kidney biopsy samples, they identified distinct cellular states — healthy, injured, adaptive, and failed-repair — and tracked how disease severity shifts cell populations. They also discovered that spatial neighborhoods around tubules predict clinical outcomes better than single-cell data alone, and validated key protein biomarkers of regenerative potential including VCAM1, CD10, and vimentin, offering a new framework for understanding why some kidneys recover from injury while others progress to chronic disease.
