Engineered Mini Kidneys Come of Age.

• Position: ORGANOIDS - Brief article

With organs-in-a-dish a growing success story, research with organoids increasingly has 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 among 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, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)...