Scientists from Technical University of Munich, Germany, have created “miniature intestines” in the lab to study the human gut.
Using organoids, made from human intestinal biopsies, the team demonstrated how the transport of nutrients and drugs can be measured.
“This paves the way for this model to be used in medical and pharmaceutical applications such as drug screening,” said Eva Rath of Chair of Nutrition and Immunology at TUM.
Meanwhile, researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, UK, are introducing cancer-causing mutations into mini organs as a model for bowel cancer and to predict drug responses (see also video).