organoids

Digesting new esophageal organoids papers

Esophageal-organoids

There’s a new paper in Cell Stem Cell on esophageal organoids that has really caught people’s attention. It is entitled, “3D Modeling of Esophageal Development using Human PSC-Derived Basal Progenitors Reveals a Critical Role for Notch Signaling.” It comes from a team led by Jianwen Que. Update: I didn’t realize when I first did this post that …

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Weekend reads: stem cells, organoids, cancer, CRISPR & a tiger named Igor

Tiger

What are your typical weekend reads? If you are a scientist, they might often include a great deal of science. I always hope I can find time for reading for pleasure too, but about as close as I get to that is the New York Times on Sunday. Here are some recommended science reads for …

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Carla Kim & Hans Clevers talks on organoids at #ISSCR2015

liver-organoid

Organoids are pretty big in stem cells right now with the last couple of years having attracted a lot of media attention on mini lungs, mini brains, mini kidneys, mini guts and more, giving the impression that scientists know how to specify and organise cells into mini functional organs in the lab. Organoids have become …

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What would you do with an extra brain?

The-Man-with-Two-Brains-209x3001

Let’s putting on our “thinking caps”….er, extra brains, get our geek on, and have some fun imagining where stem cell technology may lead us in the coming century. Unhappy with the one brain you have? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a 2nd one too? A new one? Researchers have grown mini brain-like structures from …

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If I only had a brain: brain organoids from pluripotent stem cells

In a first for the field, scientists have used human pluripotent stem cells to grow miniature brain-like structures (brain organoids) in a dish in a lab (see beautiful image of one of these “mini-brains” at left from the paper). This exciting, pioneering feat, accomplished by a team from the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna …

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