Scientists are hoping to increase the size of future kidneys and believe the resulting organs will boost research and allow cheaper, faster testing of drugs. Within the next three to five years, the artificial organs could be used to allow doctors to repair damaged kidneys within the body, rather than letting diseases develop before proceeding with a transplant.

The engineered kidney was developed by a team of Australian scientists led by the University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

Professor Wainwright said the process for developing the kidney was "like a scientific approach to cooking". The scientists methodically examined which genes were switched on and off during kidney development and then manipulated the skin cells into embryonic stem cells which could "self-organise" and form complex human structures.

"The [researchers] spent years looking at what happens if you turn this gene off and this one on," he said. "You can eventually coax these stem cells through a journey they [the cells] go through various stages and then think about being a kidney cell and eventually pop together to form a little piece of kidney."

The research could eventually help address the demand for transplant organs and improve medical testing of new drugs for patients with kidney disease.

Human kidneys are particularly susceptible to damage during trials, which makes finding effective medicines costly and time-consuming.

Professor Melissa Little, from the University of Queensland, said scientists could try to grow full-grown kidneys for transplants or even "clusters of mini kidneys" that could be transplanted to boost patients' renal functions. But she told The Australian she believed such developments were still more than a decade away.

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Kidney grown from stem cells by Australian scientists

The breakthrough marks a major advance in treating kidney disease and more avenues in bioengineering human organs. Researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Cell Biology, following their success in making human skin cells form a functioning "mini-kidney" with a width of only a few millimeters.

During self-organization, different types of cells arrange themselves with respect to each other to create the complex structures that exist within an organ, in this case, the kidney, Professor Melissa Little of University of Queenslands Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), who led the study, said in a statement. The fact that such stem cell populations can undergo self-organization in the laboratory bodes well for the future of tissue bioengineering to replace damaged and diseased organs and tissues.

While it may be a while until the process can be used in human trials, Little says it could be a major development in treating chronic kidney disease.

One in three Australians is at risk of developing chronic kidney disease, and the only therapies currently available are kidney transplant and dialysis, Little said. Only one in four patients will receive a donated organ, and dialysis is an ongoing and restrictive treatment regime.

The engineered kidney is a first for science.

"This is the first time anybody has managed to direct stem cells into the functional units of a kidney," Professor Brandon Wainwright, from the University of Queensland, told The Telegraph. "It is an amazing process it is like a Lego building that puts itself together."

Scientists were able to make the kidney by identifying genes that remained active and inactive during kidney development. They were then able to alter the genes into embryonic cells that allowed them to self-organize into the human organ.

"The [researchers] spent years looking at what happens if you turn this gene off and this one on," Wainwright said. "You can eventually coax these stem cells through a journey they [the cells] go through various stages and then think about being a kidney cell and eventually pop together to form a little piece of kidney."

Little predicts the stem cell kidneys could one day be used to make human kidney transplants, or a cluster of mini kidneys used to boost renal function in patients.

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Kidney Grown From Stem Cells For The First Time, Australian Scientists Call Breakthrough ‘An Amazing Process’