Organoid research

Organoid technologies offer unique insights into the biological processes of the tissues they mimic and are being developed at a rapid pace. Here, we introduce a Collection of content from across the Nature Journals, outlining recent progress and challenges in the organoid field.

Current advances in biotechnology open up unprecedented possibilities to transform human tissues into complex, valuable tissue products, such as organoids. Here, we propose consent for governance as a leading paradigm for the derivation, storage and use of complex human tissue products to ensure adjustment to changing ethical requirements.

Advances in stem cell research offer unprecedented insights into human biology and opportunities for clinical translation. They also raise many questions with social and ethical implications.

Nature journals formalize ethics standards for human-embryo and stem-cell papers.

Three-dimensional brain organoid models have come into the spotlight as in vitro tools to recapitulate complex features of the brain. Four recent papers now leverage current technologies to generate new flavours of brain organoids and address aspects of brain biology which, to date, have been challenging to explore.

Organoids are a powerful tool to study both physiological and disease processes. A completely synthetic matrix assembled from exchangeable modular parts has been developed and not only supports proliferation of human intestinal organoids derived from pluripotent embryonic stem cells, but also augments subsequent ad vivo implantation into injured murine colon.

Difficult questions will be raised as models of the human brain get closer to replicating its functions, explain Nita A. Farahany, Henry T. Greely and 15 colleagues.

Single-cell analyses in cancer are limited by the small biomass of individual cells. In vitro production of 3D organoid structures from single tumour-derived cells generates sufficient biomass for in-depth analyses.

Transplantation of cerebral organoids into the mouse brain overcomes some limitations of in vitro systems.

Inner ear organoids will facilitate disease studies and drug screening.

In an article published recently in Nature Medicine, the authors generate organoid models of liver neoplasia. In doing so, they highlight both the diversity of current organoid methodologies and their application to cancer modeling and therapeutics discovery.

Cruz-Acuña et al. develop synthetic hydrogels that support the generation and expansion of viable human intestinal organoids from pluripotent stem cells and can be used as injectable vehicles for organoid engraftment and wound healing.

Leushacke et al. provide insights into the role of Lgr5 cells in the oxyntic stomach, demonstrating that they label a subpopulation of chief cells that function as reserve stem cells during regeneration and cells-of-origin of gastric cancer.

Chen et al. generate lung bud organoids from human pluripotent stem cells that recapitulate early lung development, such as branching airway formation and early alveolar structures, which could potentially be used to model lung disease.

Turco et al. derive long-term genetically stable organoids from normal endometrium and the decidua that recapitulate characteristics of in vivo uterine glands, respond to hormones and differentiate into secretory and ciliated endometrial cells.

Kaminski et al. demonstrate that combined expression of the transcription factors Emx2, Hnf1b, Hnf4a and Pax8 converts mouse and human fibroblasts into induced renal tubular epithelial cells.

Organoids derived from individual cells from colorectal cancers and adjacent normal tissue are used to investigate intra-tumour diversification at the genomic, epigenetic and functional levels.

A combination of TGFβ inhibition and checkpoint-inhibition therapy provokes a potent cytotoxic response against metastatic tumours derived from colorectal cancers in mice.

Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of two- and three-dimensional hepatic differentiation reveals that both systems recapitulate certain transcriptomic features of human hepatogenesis.

Long-term cultures of human brain organoids display a high degree of cellular diversity, mature spontaneous neuronal networks and are sensitive to light.

Human pluripotent stem cells were used to develop dorsal and ventral forebrain 3D spheroids, which can be assembled to study interneuron migration and to derive a functionally integrated forebrain system with cortical interneurons and glutamatergic neurons.

The authors have designed modular synthetic hydrogel networks for mouse and human intestinal stem cell cultures that support intestinal organoid formation.

A protocol has been developed to use human induced pluripotent stem cells to obtain a self-formed ectodermal autonomous multizone, which includes distinct cell lineages of the eye, including the ocular surface ectoderm, lens, neuro-retina, and retinal pigment epithelium that can be expanded to form a functional corneal epithelium when transplanted to an animal model of corneal visual impairment.

Human cerebral organoids undergo vascularization and maturation in the mouse brain.

Engineering human brain organoids with floating scaffolds enhances the maturity and reproducibility of cortical tissue structure.

Human pluripotent stem cells are differentiated into inner ear organoids containing cells similar to hair cells and sensory neurons.

Genetically engineered colon organoids form tumors that undergo a stepwise progression toward metastatic disease after orthotopic transplantation.

Metastatic progression of colorectal cancer is modeled in mice using in vivo genome editing and transplantation of engineered organoids.

Tumor organoids derived from the most common subtypes of primary liver cancer recapitulate the histologic and molecular features of the tissues of origin, even after long-term culture. These in vitro models, as well as those for colorectal cancer reported in Crespo et al. in a previous issue, are amenable for drug screening and allow the identification of therapeutic approaches with potential for cancer treatment.

Repair of defects in the common bile duct is hampered by a lack of healthy donor tissue. Developing human extrahepatic cholangiocyte organoids and testing them in mouse models may provide a way to overcome this limitation.

A protocol based on chemical modulation of WNT activity is used to efficiently generate colonic organoids that recapitulate the molecular features of human colon tissue. Colonic organoids generated from induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with familial adenomatous polyposis provide an in vitro platform for disease modeling and preclinical drug testing.

Organoids formed by combining pluripotent-stem-cell-derived human neural crest cells with pluripotent-stem-cell-derived intestinal tissue show functional interstitial cells of Cajal and undergo waves of contraction; these tissues reveal insights into the molecular defects characterizing Hirschsprung's disease.

Mouse tumor organoids are characterized as a model to study tumor biology and drug resistance.

This paper reports the efficient generation of human alveolar cells from induced pluripotent stem cells and their expansion in 3D culture.

The fusion of patterned cerebral organoids into more complex structures enables modeling of inter-regional processes such as neuronal migration.

This paper describes an in vitro method to generate human T cells from hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). It should be useful for both basic and applied studies using T cells.

The histone methyltransferase EZH2 silences genes by generating H3K27me3 marks. Here the authors use a 3D GC organoid and show EZH2 mediates germinal centre (GC) formation through epigenetic silencing of CDKN1A and release of cell cycle checkpoints.

The dynamics of progenitor cells in human neocortex development has not been studied directly. Here, the authors timelapse image human neuroepithelial (NE) and radial glial (RG) cells in embryonic brain slices and find properties of NE cells and RG that are mimicked in cerebral organoids.

Three-dimensional culture systems and organoids for mammary glands are important to understand mammary gland development. Here, the authors identify conditions (including Neuregulin 1 and R-spondin 1) that allow the culture of organoids that are responsive to hormonal stimulation for up to 2.5 months.

Sensory hair cells from the mammalian inner ear do not regenerate. Here, the authors induce direct hair cell formation from mouse embryonic stem cells using a three-dimensional culture system and observe differentiation of Type I and Type II vestibular hair cells and establishment of synapses with neurons.

There has been limited success in generating tissues from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Here, the authors genetically engineer expression of the transcription factor Gata6 in a single isogenic hiPSC population resulting in complex tissue structures that exhibit liver bud-like properties.

It is difficult to generate functional human anterior pituitary tissues in vitro. Here, Ozone et al. generate human anterior pituitary from embryonic stem cells by recapitulating in vivodevelopment, and demonstrate this tissue secretes hormones and rescues hypopituitarism when grafted into mice.

Barker and colleagues review the history and recent developments of organoid cultures derived from pluripotent stem cells and adult epithelia, and discuss how the technology can be used for basic research as well as translational applications.

Psychiatric disorders are difficult to model owing to their inherent complexity and heterogeneity. This Perspective focuses on the use of 3D brain organoids in modeling these disorders, considering both their advantages and their limitations.

In this Review, Drost and Clevers discuss the recent advances in organoid models of cancer and how they can be exploited to drive the translation of basic cancer research into novel patient-specific treatment regimens in the clinic.

The development of indefinitely propagating human 'mini-guts' has led to a rapid advance in gastrointestinal research. This Review highlights the uses of enteroids, colonoids and organoids in functional transport physiology studies and host–pathogen studies.

By capturing and manipulating the self-organizing capacity of pluripotent stem cells, researchers have established protocols for the production ofin vitrobrain-like 'organoids'. Di Lullo and Kriegstein evaluate approaches to organoid generation and consider their potential as models of brain development and disease.

3D organoids are valuable tools for increasing understanding of disease biology. In this Review, the authors describe how successful application of organoids into urological cancer research can further our understanding of these diseases and provide preclinical cancer models to aid precision medicine.

This protocol describes the generation of early-developing cardiac organoids from human pluripotent stem cells. Geometric confinement of the hiPSCs drives spatial organization of the cells from a 2D layer into 3D cardiac microchambers.

This protocol describes procedures for building the SpinΩ bioreactor for 3D tissue culture and differentiating human iPSCs into different brain region–specific organoids resembling developing human dorsal forebrain, midbrain and hypothalamus.

This protocol uses a three-layer system to organize rat primary testicular cells into organoids that can both establish and maintain germ cells in an environment containing a functional blood–testis barrier.

In this protocol, mouse or human colorectal cancer organoids are transplanted into the cecal epithelium. The transplanted organoids grow into a single primary tumor mass within the intestinal tract and tumor cells are capable of metastasis.

Colonoscopy-guided mucosal injection is used to induce site-directed tumors and to transplant tumors into the distal colons of mice. Tumors for engraftment are obtained from cancer organoids derived from mouse or human tissue and can be genetically modified before use.

This protocol describes the synthesis and application of hydrogel matrices comprising a poly(ethylene glycol) backbone, functionalized with cell adhesion cues and laminin-111. Uses include expanding stem cells and differentiating them into organoids.

This protocol describes how to recapitulate biliary development by differentiation of hPSCs into endoderm, foregut progenitor cells, hepatoblasts, cholangiocyte progenitors and mature 3D cholangiocyte-like cell organoids.

This protocol describes how to generate mouse 3D immune organoids consisting of germinal-center-like B cells in a gelatin matrix.

This protocol describes how to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells into nephron progenitor cells with subsequent generation of 2D and 3D kidney organoids.

This protocol describes the long-term culture of liver and pancreas 3D organoids from human and mouse, and differentiation of liver organoids in vitro and in vivo. Methodology for genetic manipulation of these self-renewing organoids is also detailed.

This protocol describes stepwise differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into 3D kidney organoids that contain segmented nephrons connected to collecting ducts, which are surrounded by renal interstitial cells and an endothelial network.

This protocol describes a strategy for generating 3D prostate organoid cultures from healthy mouse and human prostate cells (either bulk or FAC-sorted single luminal and basal cells), metastatic prostate cancer lesions and circulating tumor cells.