CNS barrier–forming organoids

Generating CNS organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells for modeling neurological disorders.

Understanding human brain development and disease is largely hampered by the relative inaccessibility of human brain tissues. Recent advances in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have led to the generation of unlimited human neural cells and thereby facilitate the investigation of human brain development and pathology. Compared with traditional 2-dimensional (2D) culture methods, cu...

Immunotherapeutic organoids

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies have revolutionized the treatment of cancer and other diseases. However, several limitations of antibody-based treatments, such as the cost of therapy and the achievement of sustained plasma levels, should be still addressed for their widespread use as therapeutics. The use of cell and gene transfer methods offers additional benefits by producing a continuous r...

Organoids: a Special Issue.

I am delighted to introduce this Special Issue of Development, focussing on the emerging field of organoid biology. An organoid can be defined as an artificially grown mass of cells or tissue that resembles an organ. This term has grown in use within the research field over the past few years as a result of advances in two distinct directions: the isolation and propagation of adult stem cell ni...

Establishment of Gastrointestinal Epithelial Organoids.

The intestinal epithelium constitutes a system of constant and rapid renewal triggered by proliferation of intestinal stem cells (ISCs), and is an ideal system for studying cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation. Primary cell cultures have proven to be promising for unraveling the mechanisms involved in epithelium homeostasis. In 2009, Sato et al. established a long-term primary cul...

Kidney organoids for disease modeling