Human Organoids: A New Dimension in Cell Biology

Human organoids are being hailed as a major development in biomedicine in a recently-released report by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). According to the report, human organoids “have the potential to overcome a number of previous limitations in biomedical research” and will allow researchers to gain “insights into human development, generating accurate models of human disease, and developing authentic and patient-specific tissue sources for regenerative medicine.” According to the report, the potential applications for organoid research include:

• Improvements in the study of human developmental biology

• The unique ability to identify the mechanisms of human disease

• Tremendous potential for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

• Development of patient-specific clinical models for personalized drug development

• Significant reduction in cost and time for development of prescription drug development

You can read the report at https://www.ascb.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Final-v2-for-printing.pdf.

For more information or to talk with members of the ASCB Task Force, contact Kevin Wilson, Director of Public Policy and Media Relations at [email protected] or 301-347-9308.