The Podocyte

Scanning Electron Microscopy of the Podocyte

photo of healthy popocyte

NeST LogoThe picture above shows a normal podocyte. The foot processes that encircle the small blood vessels in the kidney glomerulus form a kind of sieve. This sieve filters the proteins and its correct functioning is essential for the kidney to do its job properly.

photo of diseased podocyte

The picture above is the diseased podocyte in nephrotic syndrome. This podocyte has lost its highly specialised architecture. This means that the podocyte is not performing its sieve function correctly so the kidney is not doing its job properly.

We want to find out what makes the cell in the first picture change into the cell in the second picture. We then want to find out how to reverse this process.