Engineered miniature kidneys come of age
With organs-in-a-dish a growing success story, research with organoids has increasingly proved its worth. Already, scientists can create organoids that have many of the cell types and complex architectures of human organs such as the kidney, liver, guts, and even the brain. Most organoids grown in vitro , however, have lacked the vasculature to provide the cells with oxygen and nutrients, remove metabolic waste, and facilitate communication between cell types — functions that drive their maturation into working tissue-building blocks. When it comes to kidney organoids, that shortcoming has kept researchers from reproducing key functions, such as blood filtration, reabsorption, and urine production. A vascularized organoid could better model kidney diseases, enhance renal drug toxicity testing, and ultimately lead to building blocks for replacement therapies. To answer that need, a team of researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS),...