The Current Applications and Potential of Stem Cell-Derived Organoids

Dear Colleagues,

In addition to therapy, in vitro differentiated cells are currently used for drug testing, development, and disease modeling to give valuable insights into underlying mechanisms. Pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-derived 3D organoids are composed of distinct cell types characteristic within the organ under investigation and adopt specific organ-related structure, thus further increasing their maturity and utility compared to 2D cultured cells. Furthermore, the culturing of organoids employing organ-on-a-chip systems has added an additional level of sophistication and enhancement, thus enabling investigations at near-physiological levels.

Methodologies to attempt to create human 3D models from PSCs have been pursued since the late 2000s, with a breakthrough being achieved more recently with the generation of brain organoids. Tissue-specific organoids derived from PSCs are self-organizing structures which recapitulate with considerable accuracy the temporal developmental trajectory similar to fetal development. Notably, not only does the cyto-architecture of the organoids mimic aspects of the tissue-specific organ, but it also shares similar epigenetic and transcriptional programs. The exciting advances in the PSC-derived organoid field have opened up new avenues and tools for obtaining a better understanding of human development. However, organoid technology is still in an early phase of development, facing several challenges that limit their utility, and further optimization of the existing models is required. New robust and standardized protocols of differentiation and maturation of organoids, with increased cellular complexity while maintaining reproducibility, are needed. A combination of refined organoids systems with technological advances in the “-omics” methodologies and genome editing tools will increase our knowledge of healthy human development.

In this Special Issue, we invite researchers to contribute original research articles, comprehensive reviews, and communications on all aspects related to the utility of tissue-specific organoids as experimental systems for studying a normal healthy development and molecular mechanisms underlying diseases, toxicology and drug screening.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Organoids.

Prof. Dr. James Adjaye
Dr. Nina Graffmann
Guest Editors

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• organoids
• stem cell-derived organoids
• stem cells
• pluripotent stem cells
• iPSCs
• organ-on-a-chip
• disease modelling
• cellular therapeutics
• regenerative medicine