Organoids News and Research

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Organoids are three-dimensional cell cultures from embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells that model important features of whole organs.

Secretory capacity of human gut does not decline with age, shows study

A breakthrough in basic research and the first comprehensive study on the secretory activity of the human intestine: over a period of eight years, Dr. Dagmar Krüger of the Department of Human Biology at TU Munich has examined more than 2200 specimens from around 450 patients with bowel disease.

10 Mar 2016

Cells communicate to their neighbors and compare notes before making a move

To decide whether and where to move in the body, cells must read chemical signals in their environment. Individual cells do not act alone during this process, two new studies on mouse mammary tissue show. Instead, the cells make decisions collectively after exchanging information about the chemical messages they are receiving.

22 Jan 2016

Novel drug shows promise against metastatic breast cancer in mouse models

12 Jan 2016

Novel drug shows promise in mouse models of human metastatic breast cancer

A doctor treating a patient with a potentially fatal metastatic breast tumor would be very pleased to find, after administering a round of treatment, that the primary tumor had undergone a change in character - from aggressive to static, and no longer shedding cells that can colonize distant organs of the body. Indeed, most patients with breast and other forms of cancer who succumb to the illness do so because of the cancer's unstoppable spread.

23 Dec 2015

New mathematical models shed light on complex interactions of stem cell function in neural tissue

New research has shed light on the complex interactions of stem cell function and molecular diffusion in neural tissue, which may explain many phenomena from stem cell differentiation to the formation of the cortex of the brain. While researching new methods of reconstructing 3D neural tissue and neural pathways in the brain and spinal cord, Dr. Richard McMurtrey devised new mathematical approaches for understanding the concentration of nutrients within the 3D tissue constructs and how this could affect tissue growth.

22 Dec 2015

New way of growing fallopian tube cells in culture may boost understanding of female genital diseases

A new way of growing fallopian tube cells in culture is expected to give a boost to our understanding and prevention of female gynecological diseases, such as infertility, inflammatory disease, and ovarian cancer.

12 Dec 2015

Researchers team up to evaluate biological and genetic differences of GI cancers in race, ethnicity

Americans of African descent are at a significantly higher risk for developing and dying from Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, which include colorectal and pancreatic cancers, compared to individuals who are of Caucasian descent.

5 Nov 2015

New method to grow 3D pancreatic cancer organoid may help test drug responses and personalized treatments

The development of a new method to grow three-dimensional organoid cultures of pancreatic tumors directly from patients' surgical tissue offers a promising opportunity for testing targeted therapies and drug responses and personalizing treatments in a rapid, cost-effective manner.

28 Oct 2015

Stem cell biology and gene-editing techniques offer hope for kidney regeneration

Mini-kidney organoids have now been grown in a laboratory by using genome editing to re-create human kidney disease in petri dishes.

23 Oct 2015

BWH, HSCI establish new method for making kidney structures from stem cells derived from patients

Investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute have established a highly efficient method for making kidney structures from stem cells that are derived from skin taken from patients.

19 Oct 2015

Leading cancer researchers address eight 'big questions'

Leading cancer researchers address eight of the "big questions" facing the field as part of the inaugural issue of Trends in Cancer, published by Cell Press.

30 Sep 2015

Keck School of Medicine of USC researcher wins first Hearst Fellowship

Albert D. Kim, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of Southern California, is the first Keck School of Medicine of USC researcher to win a Hearst Fellowship for his work investigating how to turn stem cells into nephrons, the functional units of the kidney.

26 Sep 2015

UCSF-led team develops new technique to create tiny models of human tissues

A UCSF-led team has developed a technique to build tiny models of human tissues, called organoids, more precisely than ever before using a process that turns human cells into a biological equivalent of LEGO bricks. These mini-tissues in a dish can be used to study how particular structural features of tissue affect normal growth or go awry in cancer. They could be used for therapeutic drug screening and to help teach researchers how to grow whole human organs.

1 Sep 2015

Adaptive immune system plays active role in guiding development of mammary glands

In experiments with mouse tissue, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered that the adaptive immune system, generally associated with fighting bacterial and viral infections, plays an active role in guiding the normal development of mammary glands, the only organs--in female humans as well as mice--that develop predominately after birth, beginning at puberty.

28 Aug 2015

Scientists develop human cortical spheroids

A patient tormented by suicidal thoughts gives his psychiatrist a few strands of his hair. She derives stem cells from them to grow budding brain tissue harboring the secrets of his unique illness in a petri dish. She uses the information to genetically engineer a personalized treatment to correct his brain circuit functioning. Just Sci-fi? Yes, but...

1 Jun 2015

Dr. Mike O. Karl awarded EYEnovative Research Award for retina research

Dr. Mike O. Karl, group leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the DFG Research Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden - Cluster of Excellence at the TU Dresden, was awarded the “EYEnovative Förderpreis” of the Novartis Pharma GmbH already for the second time.

25 Apr 2015

LaVision BioTec reports on the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research and their use of multiphoton microscopy to understand the behaviour of cells in cancer metastasis

LaVison BioTec, developers of advanced microscopy solutions for the life sciences, report on the research of Professor Kurt I Anderson and his groups' studies of cell migration in the context of cancer metastasis at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research...

14 Apr 2015

University of Michigan scientists grow first 3D mini lungs from human stem cells

Scientists from the University of Michigan have grown the first 3D mini lungs from stem cells. The study, published in eLife, compliments other developments in the field such as growing mainly 2D structures and building lung tissue from the scaffold of donated organs.

25 Mar 2015

Cambridge scientists successfully create 'mini-lungs' to study cystic fibrosis

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have successfully created 'mini-lungs' using stem cells derived from skin cells of patients with cystic fibrosis, and have shown that these can be used to test potential new drugs for this debilitating lung disease.

20 Mar 2015

UC San Diego School of Medicine project receives 2015 Avant-Garde Award for HIV/AIDS Research

A University of California, San Diego School of Medicine project involving the creation of miniature models of the human brain - developed with stem cells - to study neurological disorders caused by HIV and methamphetamine use has been named one of five recipients of the 2015 Avant-Garde Award for HIV/AIDS Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

11 Feb 2015