Organoids

Organoids, a minuture of organes. Will this be the future of biomedical research? An organoid is a miniaturized and simplified version of an organ produced in vitro in three dimensions that shows realistic micro-anatomy. They are derived from one or a few cells from a tissue, embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells, which can self-organize in three-dimensional culture owing to their self-renewal and differentiation capacities. The technolgy in growing organoids is rapidly developing since 2010s, which makes organoids a valiable research tool in understading developmental biology and accelrating personalised medicine. Yet, ethical implications can be hard to measure. Although there is no embryos used in the organoids creatation, questions have been placed on whether organoids are materially different from a human embryo?
More readings regarding to organoids: The new face of the stem cell debate