Combes Laboratory
Development and Disease
Welcome to the Combes Lab
We investigate the mechanisms of embryonic development to understand the origins of disease and guide efforts to engineer human tissues from stem cells.
We're part of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, and a member of the Development & Stem Cells Program and
the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology.
Dr Alex Combes
My global research connections, partners and funding can be viewed on my Monash Research Profile.
If you are a student interested in doing research in our lab, visit Supervisor Connect.
Click the links below to connect with me on Twitter, ORCID, Google Scholar and Scopus.
Our research
Our research focuses on kidney development and disease. We use advanced imaging, gene editing, and bioinformatic approaches to study how the kidney forms during development, and to investigate the capacity for human stem cell models to replicate aspects of chronic kidney disease.
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Tissue engineering and disease modelling
We are investigating whether stem cell-derived human kidney tissue can model aspects of chronic kidney disease, which affects over 850 million people world-wide. In parallel, we are mapping the molecular programs that govern kidney development to improve the production of human kidney tissue from stem cells.
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Regulation of progenitor cell fate in development and disease
We seek a deeper understanding of the regulation and behaviour of key progenitor populations in the kidney and how they interact to control the structure and functional capacity of the adult organ.
Lab members
We are committed to excellence in research.
Join Our Lab
We're always interested in collaborating with bright and motivated researchers, clinicians and industry. Whether you want to research, study or partner with us to accelerate our discoveries, find out about the work we do.