Mini Models

To study skyscraper design or aeroplane flight dynamics, you might make a small model before tinkering with the real thing. Researchers take a similar approach to studying our organs. Clusters of cells resembling miniature organs are used to mimic conditions like cancer on a safe and manageable scale demonstrating how they take hold in our body. For example, scientists studying oesophageal cancers have been hampered by a lack of experimental options, but have now produced organoids that replicate the molecular, physiological and genetic environment of the disease. These organoids – pictured at 3, 7, 14 and 21 days of development from a tumour-derived starting point – provide a new realistic platform for testing drugs and other treatments, as well as observing disease progression, without endangering human or animal test subjects.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Xiaodun Li and Hayley E. Francies, and colleagues
• MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, July 2018