What are organoid cultures?

Organoid culture is a type of tissue culture technique that’s used to grow functional 3D organoids from a group of cells and combination of various biochemical factors. Such cultures can be crafted to replicate much of the complexity of an organ, or to express selected aspects of it like producing only certain types of cells.

In an organoid culture, stem cells are capable of following their own genetic instructions to self-organize and form organoids. Organoids are tiny three-dimensional structures that can range in size from less than a hair width to about 5 millimeters. Each organoid is composed of many cells and resembles a miniature organ.

There are potentially as many types of organoids as there are different tissues and organs in the body. To date, researchers have been able to produce organoids that resemble the brain, stomach, lung, kidney, and intestine.