Our lab is a diverse, dedicated, and fun-loving group – a mix of students and professional scientists from all walks of life.
Lab picture (March 2022):
Lab members: Currently we are four graduate students, two postdoctoral fellows, three research scientists, and one Acting Instructor. A few of our lab members are described below!
Dr. Benjamin Freedman is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Division of Nephrology. He is also a member of the Kidney Research Institute and the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Freedman received his Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology in 2009 from the University of California at Berkeley. He performed postdoctoral studies in the Renal Division of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Freedman is currently performing biomedical research using human pluripotent stem cells to model kidney disease pathophysiology and develop new therapies.
Louisa is a third-year student in the Molecular Medicine and Mechanisms of Disease (M3D) PhD program, which is a special program focused on therapeutics development. Her projects focus on the application of human organoids for genetic kidney disorders, as well as the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the kidneys.
Raghava is a research scientist who is combining iPS cells with CRISPR gene editing to establish laboratory models of human disease and regeneration. His work focuses on signaling pathways relating to cystic kidney disease and cilia, as well as cystinosis, a disorder that affects children.
Ramila is a research scientist studying signaling pathways in polycystic kidney disease, using human organoid models. She is also part of our genome editing team.
Notable Lab Alumni:
Nelly was a research scientist and lab manager from 2015-2020. She helped establish the lab in Seattle and made major contributions to a variety of projects, most notably in polycystic kidney disease and high throughput screening. She is currently a senior research scientist at Sloan Kettering in New York City.
Yong Kyun was a visiting scholar and nephrologist from South Korea, where he is an Associate Professor. He spent the year in the Freedman lab to learn the new technology of kidney organoid differentiation. He has now returned to Korea where he is growing the first human kidney organoids in that country.
Stefan completed his Masters degree in Cellular and Physiological Sciences at the University of British Columbia and is currently attending medical school at the University of Washington. While in the lab, Stefan succeeded in miniaturizing and automating the procedure of generating human organoids from pluripotent stem cells. He is currently a medical student at the UW.
Images of our lab:
Hard working cell culturists!
Checking out some organoids on the scope.
Lab laser tag (2018)
Halloween party with Ruohola-Baker lab (2017)
