In February 2022, Jitske Jansens team from RWTH Aachen University in Germany published an article titled "SARS-CoV-2 infects the human kidney and drives fibrosis in kidney organoids" in Cell Stem Cell. They used human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to culture kidney organoids to visually study the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the human kidney.

Exploring Gastrointestinal Development — Construction of Three-Germ Layer Gastric Organoids

Thyroid function homeostasis is crucial for growth and development and for maintaining overall health. Thyroid diseases, including hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and thyroid tumors, are increasingly prevalent and are becoming more common at younger ages, possibly related to defects in thyroid embryonic development. Currently, there is a lack of understanding regarding human thyroid embryonic development, and there are no models available for critical developmental stages. Previous studies have reported the directed differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into thyroid-like tissue that can exhibit thyroid characteristics and transplantation potential [1]. However, due to the absence of human embryonic thyroid tissue or organoids for comparison, the cell evolutionary landscape and developmental events during key time windows remain unknown, severely limiting the application of iPSC differentiation systems in studying human thyroid embryonic development.

Two recent articles published in the journal Nature have shown how scientists, with the help of organoids, have unraveled the pathogenic mechanism of Apc-mutated cells in intestinal tumors and proposed effective therapeutic measures.