Antony Rose

• BSc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences
• Investigation into the role of ADAMTS9 in primary cilia structure / function

One of the main causes of kidney damage in children is an inherited cystic kidney disease called Nephronophthisis (NPHP). It has been shown that loss of the gene ADAMTS9 can cause NPHP by affecting the primary cilium in the kidney, an important cell organelle. This project’s aim was to investigate how the loss of ADAMTS9 affected the development of primary cilia. The mouse cell line NIH3T3 was chosen for this study as this cell line was meant to both express ADAMTS9 and undergo ciliogenesis, making it a good model for this study. When tested the NIH3T3 cells did undergo ciliogenesis however, when testing for ADAMTS9, the gene was not detected. To overcome this, another mouse cell line was tested, mIMCD3, for the same reasons as the NIH3T3 cells. Similarly, to the NIH3T3 cells, these cells also underwent ciliogenesis but again did not express ADAMTS9.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Project supervisor: Professor John Sayer