Respiratory system models articles from across Nature Portfolio

Airway organoids made in Matrigel are in basal-out orientation. Here, authors present apical-out nasal organoids using a biochemically defined hydrogel system, revealing that matrix metalloproteinases are required for normal epithelial development.

Mesenchymal lineages play critical roles during development, though these cells are frequently overlooked in directed differentiation models. Here they derive lung-specific mesenchyme from mouse iPSCs and generate organoids consisting of both mesenchymal and epithelial progenitors, observing functional epithelial-mesenchymal crosstalk.

A protocol for the directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into distal lung organoids that can be used to model interstitial lung disease, viral infection and human lung development, along with procedures for their analysis.

There is an urgent need for drugs, therapies and vaccines to be available to protect the human population against COVID-19. One of the first approaches taken in the COVID-19 global response was to consider repurposing licensed drugs. This commentary highlights an extraordinary international collaborative effort of independent researchers who have recently all come to the same conclusion—that chloroquine or hydroxchloroquine are unlikely to provide clinical benefit against COVID-19.