Gary Liu

The kidneys are physiologically complex and intelligent. Through a deft calculus of filtration, reabsorption, secretion, and excretion, the kidneys process up to 200 L of blood daily, removing waste and retaining useful biomolecules. Chronic kidney disease remains a massive health challenge, afflicting ~15% of Americans and costing the U.S. healthcare system $130 billion annually.

Our group seeks to develop technologies to transform kidney medicine.

The kidneys possess unique physiological features, transport processes, and clinical procedures that can be leveraged to engineer injectable biomaterials (polymers, nanoparticles) that preferentially distribute into the kidneys. To interface with the various compartments of kidney tissue, we seek to understand and leverage the interplay between biomaterials properties, kidney physiology, and disease state to sense disease, deliver new therapeutic classes, and augment kidney tissue with new functions. More broadly, by understanding these interactions, we aim to apply our technologies to other tissue systems.