A mini-kidney has been grown in an Australian laboratory from what were originally skin cells, boosting hopes for the future treatment of kidney disease.

The study adds support to a science-fiction-like goal of taking skin cells from a patient, using them to grow a kidney and then implanting it into the same patient, circumventing problems with transplant rejection.

The kidney as seen in a petri dish. Credit:UQ

The result of the work was a kidney measuring in the millimetres. The next step will be finding ways to increase its size.

Lead researcher Professor Melissa Little spent years researching which genes were switched on or off during natural kidney development.