Dr Alexander Combes is head of the Development and Disease laboratory at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University and Director of the Monash Genome Modification Platform. His team uses advanced imaging, gene editing, and single cell approaches to study how the kidney forms during development, and to investigate the capacity for human kidney organoids to model aspects of chronic kidney disease.
Awarded a PhD from graduate studies in organogenesis with Professor Peter Koopman at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience, Dr Combes undertook postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of kidney organoid pioneer Professor Melissa Little. During this time he was awarded a DECRA fellowship, and grants from the ARC and NHMRC to develop new 3D imaging and single cell analysis approaches to investigate kidney development and disease in mouse and human kidney organoid models.
High throughput single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) enables analysis of gene expression for thousands of individual cells from dissociated tissues. scRNAseq has had a broad impact in nephrology by providing new and innovative ways to interrogate the cellular and molecular drivers of kidney development and disease in human tissues, animal models and organoids. Initial high throughput scRNAseq methods required expertise in microfluidics, molecular biology and bioinformatics with an eye-watering budget to boot. However, new commercial kits, molecular and bioinformatic service providers have made this technology more accessible and affordable than ever. This presentation will provide an introduction to the fundamentals of scRNAseq including considerations for preparing clinical and experimental samples, cell capture, sequencing and analysis, noting limitations and common hurdles. scRNAseq studies from our research will be used to illustrate some applications of scRNAseq, concluding with emerging trends in single cell and spatial transcriptomics in nephrology.