Let's Grow Organs From Stem Cells! Organoid Research
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
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We can grow organoids ("tiny organs") in the laboratory! Organoids are structures containing tissues which resemble adult organs and they help us to understand development and disease. We make organoids out of stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) in the laboratory. We provide stem cells with the right compounds in order to provoke self-organization. Self-organization in organoids is a process in which stem cells follow their genetic instructions to self-organise, thereby creating complex tissues. A famous example is the generation of optic cups from stem cells. We do not need to intervene with the shape of organoids, they assemble themselves.
However, we still cannot grow intact organs in the laboratory. This is because the development of organoids is very complicated and we need to identify which molecules provoke the formation of a specific organ in order to provide stem cells with the former. Nontheless, organoids are currently used in different fields of research.
Cerebral organoids, for example, are used to model infections. They can be compared to tiny brains (although they are not conscious), since their physiology and gene expression is similar to the developing brain. During the zika epidemic in Brazil some years ago, cerebral organoids were used to identify the pathogen. We can also use organoids for the development of new gene therapies (for example intestinal organoids) or to conduct liver toxicity assays (hepatic organoids). We also know other organoids such as thymic, pancreatic or lung organoids or gastruloids. Gastruloids are organoids which mimic early development.
For your further research:
Clevers, Hans. "Modeling development and disease with organoids." Cell 165.7 (2016): 1586-1597.
Tang, Hengli, et al. "Zika virus infects human cortical neural progenitors and attenuates their growth." Cell stem cell 18.5 (2016): 587-590.
Schwank, Gerald, et al. "Functional repair of CFTR by CRISPR/Cas9 in intestinal stem cell organoids of cystic fibrosis patients." Cell stem cell 13.6 (2013): 653-658.
Images (taken from Flickr):
Cerebral organoid: Credit: Vaccarino Lab, Yale University
Research published in: Amiri et al., Transcriptome and epigenome landscape of human cortical development modeled in organoids. Science 362,2018
Inner ear organoid: Credit: Karl R. Koehler, Ph.D., Indiana University School of Medicine
Stem cell aspirations: The Amoeba Sisters • How Cells Become Speci...
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About Clemens Steinek:
CLEMENS STEINEK is a postgraduate student/youtuber (LifeLabLearner) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.
This channel need more views
How fast can stem cells create Organoids? If we could increase the speed of “Organoid synthesis” could we use this to treat patients who have severe lacerations on the scene?
The time it takes for organoids to form depends on the respective protocol (when scientists establish new organoids, they also publish how they generated them, we call that protocol). There are several reasons why it will unfortunately be unlikely that we can generate organ(oid)s quickly outside the lab for transplantation. Firstly, it currently takes several weeks to generate induced pluripotent stem cells from human skin cells (which we could then differentiate into organoids). Besides this obstacle, it takes even more time to test generated cells/tissues regarding their safety. Before cells are transplanted into the body of a human, they have to be extensively tested to assess if they can cause any harm to the patient (if, for example, tissues still contain some remaining stem cells, they might form cancer-like teratoma after transplantation). Therefore, I think it is very difficult to reduce safety tests without becoming very unethical. We also need a lot of laboratory equipment for these tests. All in all, it is currently not possible to create organ(oid)s and perform transplantations right on the spot (of course, this might look completely different in the future!)
Theoretically, couldn't you have a sterile microscopic mesh-like structure over the burn/wound, get patient stem cells and pour them on to get the skin started, and remove any pre-cancerous
0:56 Yes, very true! Indeed, organoid-research is very important to reduce the number of animal experiments as well. However, in my mind it sounds like you would miss the macro pharmacokinetic aspects of an in vivo model, but gain more relevant pharmacodynamic data and more importantly, behaviour of a drug in a relevant micro-environment (and potential tox-effects to surrounding tissue or something). Love to see the future of all of this. There's also increasing efforts for 'lab on a chip' or 'organ on a chip'. Nice that you're adding to this field of knowledge by doing stem cell research!
5:27 :D haha!
6:18 nice summary for those that don't know about them!
Good point, you are completely right. I should have emphasised more that organoids will likely not be able to make the usage of animals completely redundant. However, I think that they can partially replace animals in initial screens (just to see if there is an effect in human tissues; this might also increase the success rates of tested drugs).
I think it must be followed by the mechanism in the early embryonic organ development, I assume that it is not understood as each step can be many intermediate steps in between that it is difficult to track it & must first develop a technique to stop each seq to study.
1:17 ah youtube captions, you were doing so well. how could you turn "bodies of mice" into "Paris of Mars"?
Sounds like an incredible place to be though!
Love the channel man! Just discovered it for a binge-watch today! I am really impressed by the editing and overall layout of your video structure. Any hints and tips for a fellow scientist starting a TH-cam channel would be amazing!
Great that you enjoy my content! In my opinion, scheduling is very important if you want to produce videos AND work in the laboratory (I'm currently struggeling there a bit). Feel free to ask me anything further, I'm happy to help!
@@Sciencerely without scheduling and just "ad lib" I'm squeezing out one video a month! Not of the quality of yours, might I add! Just submitted the thesis and now living in Germany so a bit of more freedom to schedule! 💪
I just found your channel form the comment in sci show and trust me I don't regret it your videos are absolutely amazing I am hooked onto your videos 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 love from India ♥️♥️
Thank you, I'm happy that you found my channel and enjoy the content! :)
I came here after your amazing comment on kurzgesagt!
Wonderful channel, thanks for sharing 🙂
I have heard stem cells are being used to reverse osteoporosis. Is that done in the entire body? How is stem cell intervention used in the jaw? Can we fix teeth? Regrow teeth?
I love your videos!
Great questions! Scientists are indeed currently studying whether stem cells can reverse diseases such as osteoporosis. The idea is that stem cells (mesenchymal stem cells mostly) are delivered to the bone where they themselves help to form osteoblasts (which are important to make bone structures). That could help to alleviate the symptoms of osteoporosis. Regrowing teeth would be more challenging as you would need a protocol to model the entire structure which is currently not possible. It is also thought that stem cells have anti-inflammatory effects in the body which could also help in many diseases. I am aware that some people are already offering stem cell-based therapies, however, I have to say that there is often clinical evidence lacking that the respective therapy really works. These therapies are often not fully developed although they might become promising soon. So if you are interested in such therapies I would suggest that you go to a doctor and look for clinical data. Hope that helps!
I think this would work for transplants, but my biggest hope is that organoids and simulations (or maybe even organoids that help create simulations?) can eventually put an end to animal testing. I don't know how the effects on other parts of the body could be found by testing on single organoids, but I know there are some efforts to map the body for medical students to practice virtual surgeries and I'm hoping the two together could work (I don't know if different conditions and genetic disorders can be simulated or not, maybe they are trying to get to that point?). How far off do you think we are from being getting rid of animal testing? Do you think better funding for biology would help get to that point quicker?
Great questions. Your thoughts on translating gained knowledge are completely right. Of course, we cannot predict how drugs will interact with the whole human body after conducting tests in organoids. Therefore, the usage of animals, as well as, extensive clinical phases will likely still be necessary in the nearer future. However, I firmly believe that organoids and other in vitro systems can partially replace animals in initial screenings (meaning that the usage of animals will at least be reduced). Regarding your second question: Funding opportunities hugely differ between different fields of biomedical research. Broadly speaking, a lot of money goes into cancer research, which is also very successful. I can imagine that not many scientists really need to focus on organoids here. However, other funded research disciplines, such as research concerning Alzheimer's disease are not as advanced as cancer and, therefore, the development of new in vitro models might be more desirable. I think, in this case, that the success of the development of new treatments is more important than increasing the funding funding here (these are my speculations though).
@@Sciencerely I understand. Thank you.
Thanks for leaving a comment on the new kurzgesagt video!
Your channel is amazing!
Subscribed because of organoid review
Someone has spent time watching PewDiePie instead of doing research...
I don’t understand. Are you making a joke about yourself? Do you have a problem with that he’s saying? What do you mean?
@@KnakuanaRka Unfunny PewDiePie fan I guess.
14 liker AND UPLOADED 10 HOURS AGO AND NOTIFICATION SQUADD!!!!!!!!
Why do you sound like docm77
GOT PATREON _+ TO SUPPORT
Use pig stem cells and grow bacon for our new Mars colony
We should ask Elon Musk for funding..
I take issue with the notion that there is a unsolved 4x4 in the background. Certainly damages your credibility. joking ofc.
I just became sick so I have plenty of time to solve the cube now!
It is not like someone who needs an organ has a choice what type of organ to accept or not. If it could be grown, that would revolutionize health care a quality of life for people. World is getting older and it will only get worse, not better.