The Pig Idea

Organoids are often used as living models, grown in the lab from stem cells then nurtured with chemicals. They’re useful for research – allowing questions to be asked that would be impossible in living 'plugged in' organs. But with this kidney organoid, grown from human stem cells, researchers have taken another step. A sixteen-day programme of growth and carefully timed treatments allows the team to produce the organoids in bulk. They examine the tissue with a variety of techniques including a high-powered microscope to picture details like renal tubules (green), podocytes (red) and cell nuclei (blue). Next, they transplant the organoids into pig kidneys in the lab, watching to see how well the organoids settle. This could be the first step to clinical trials in which human kidneys are regenerated or repaired with organoids prior to transplant.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Elena Garreta, Daniel Moya-Rull, Alberto Centeno & Andrés Marco, et al, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia
• Pluripotency for organ regeneration (PR Lab), Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Research published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, October 2025