To study biology and human disease, researchers can choose from a variety of models to use in their work. That presents obvious hurdles, however; humans are not the same as mice. While human cell lines that are grown in laboratory dishes are another option, those cells aren’t existing in the same state as they do in a human body.
Since we can’t experiment on people, researchers have now found ways to create three-dimensional structures of cells that are simplified versions of human organs. This video from the New England Journal of Medicine explores some of the current organoid models that have been created. This is an area of research that seems likely to expand in the coming years.