Australian scientists have successfully developed a method that allows them to grow mini-kidneys from stem cells in a lab, Mashable reports.

The method to grow mini kidneys could help with drug research, as well as provide assistance to those in need of a kidney transplant.

Melissa Little, a professor at the University of Queensland, told Mashable Australia that the researchers had used stem cells derived from human skin cells known as fibroblasts.

The research was published in Nature. 

"It's a bit like cooking, but we spend a lot of time getting the ingredients right," she added. Typically, the mini-kidneys take 18 days to develop.

The mini-kidneys are visible without a microscope and are between half-a-centimetre and one centimetre in width. They contain around 50 to 100 nephrons as compared to the adult kidney that contains around 1 million nephrons. The mini kidneys do not contain the waste drainage outlet.

The mini-kidneys are similar to the tiny kidneys found in a foetus around the early second trimester.

"We estimate that they're equivalent to a 10 to 13 week foetus," Little said. "It's got all the cell types present at that stage of development."

Little said that a mini-kidney could be grown from the cells of someone with kidney disease. This would help the doctors to better understand the individual's illness and test drugs on the mini kidney to find which medications would be most effective for the patient.

Little also suggested that it might also be possible to take some of the stem cells and put them into a patient to help fix the malfunctioning kidney.

"We don't know whether they'll go in the kidney and do the right job, but what we know is we have an ability to make cells that might be useful," she said.