October 10, 2024

Reggie Dao

12th Grade

Fountain Valley High School

To model diseases and do multiple tests for the benefit of the human body, organoids come into play for this role to allow scientists and hospital workers to delve deeper into the unsolved questions of medicine, disease, and organ development. Research of the human body has benefited thanks to these organoids, which are replicated miniature organs in a dish to serve as testable objects, saving many lives. This new way of cultivating artificial organs has expanded scientists’ knowledge of individualized diseases and drugs.

Organoids are specifically grown from stem cells and can express themselves as different cells or even can divide into a complex organ. Scientists have cracked the code in creating organs by finding areas the stem cells can grow and divide in and being able to investigate and analyze the diseases and drug tests of individualized patients. Specifically, organoids are grown from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), tissue-specific adult cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which succeed in carving out diseases. These species of cells are special since scientists can replicate this process repeatedly. At the Harvard Stem Cell Institute from an article called “Organoids: A new window into disease, development and discovery”, these stem cells “follow their own genetic instructions to self-organize, forming tiny structures that resemble miniature organs composed of many cell types.” Not only can these tissues be replicated into organs and cells, but they are personalized to the patient and range in different sizes that can provide accurate results. As these cells grow and divide over time, they increase in complexity and become more beneficial to tests and giving results of diseases. The cell development becomes simple in the lab room, and the outcomes give spectacular research in finding out about patients.

Specific cases where organoids have benefited individuals with disorders or diseases were when scientists were able to model the abnormalities inside the genes of autistic patients, and also seeing how microcephaly connected with developing the Zika virus. Not only does it unfold more information about diseases, but the use of organoids has allowed scientists to study more about how the brain shapes in its early stages.

Overall, the utilization of organoids is benefiting the future health of our population, being able to help professionals analyze potential abnormalities, causes, individualized medicine, and diseases.