Alex J. Hughes

This paper uses optogenetic control of RET signaling to induce controlled budding in human kidney organoids.

This paper develops a 3D culture technique to study kidney development and shows that matrix stiffness and adhesion influence nephron formation and spacing.

The paper maps human kidney development using single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, revealing fate decisions influenced by the local microenvironment.

MATCHY quantifies cell adhesion and traction in primary kidney cells, revealing an energetic ratchet mechanism driving nephron condensation during differentiation.

This study identifies a mechanical pacemaker in the kidney stroma that synchronizes nephron formation with ureteric bud branching.

The paper shows how mouse embryonic kidney epithelium resolves geometric packing conflicts through internally generated tensions to avoid defects.

The paper quantifies morphological features of organoids under perturbations to identify constraints on their phenotypes, finding scaling relationships and parameter caps that vary with age and culture conditions.

Quantius provides a crowd-based image annotation platform that achieves high-fidelity human annotation at 105 clicks per hour, matching deep learning performance while reducing time and cost.