{"id":51553,"date":"2025-11-19T10:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/?post_type=news&p=51553"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:47:13","slug":"a-new-era-for-organoids","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Era for Organoids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers have long grown three dimensional\u00a0living tissues called\u00a0organoids to study how healthy\u00a0tissues work, what happens when\u00a0disease strikes, and to test new drugs\u00a0and other therapies, all without\u00a0risk to humans. Now, a team led by\u00a0Denis Wirtz<\/a>, the Theophilus Halley\u00a0Smoot Professor of chemical and\u00a0biomolecular engineering and vice\u00a0provost for research, is mapping\u00a0entire organs in exquisite detail, cell\u00a0by cell, creating tissue blueprints that\u00a0allow scientists to culture organoids\u00a0with far greater precision.<\/p>\n

Wirtz\u2019s team built the first complete\u00a03D cellular model of the human\u00a0pancreas, revealing that most people\u00a0have precancerous lesions previously\u00a0considered definitive cancer markers.\u00a0Wirtz likens these lesions to skin\u00a0moles: Many people have moles, but\u00a0not all become cancerous.<\/p>\n

Such knowledge can serve as\u00a0a guardrail against expensive and\u00a0unnecessary overtreatment. He\u2019s\u00a0done similar work on ovaries, fallopian\u00a0tubes, and endometrial tissues\u00a0to study ovarian cancer and endometriosis.\u00a0His team even mapped\u00a0every cell in a fetal rhesus macaque\u00a0monkey, Wirtz says, cueing up a\u00a0dramatic illustration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first-ever 3D reconstruction\u00a0of the auditory system of\u00a0any organism. The nervous system.\u00a0The skeletal system. The GI tract. The\u00a0whole urinary system,\u201d Wirtz says.<\/p>\n

The crux of their approach is\u00a0their ability to identify and locate\u00a0every cell type in a tissue sample at\u00a0submicron resolution across the entire\u00a0organ.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have this completely cutting-\u00a0edge computing advantage,\u201d\u00a0Wirtz says. \u201cWith it we can see,\u00a0\u2018Oh, epithelia go here, muscle here,\u00a0blood vessel over there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is not just finely\u00a0accurate 3D digital models, but\u00a0better blueprints for bioprinters to\u00a0realize a new era of organoid science.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re building next-gen organoids. Maybe from here we can really go nuts and not do one organ but 25, because\u2026 why not?\u201d Wirtz asks. \u201cNow, we have the tools to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article was originally posted as part of the Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-51553","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-faculty","news_categories-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA New Era for Organoids - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A New Era for Organoids - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Researchers have long grown three dimensional\u00a0living tissues called\u00a0organoids to study how healthy\u00a0tissues work, what happens when\u00a0disease strikes, and to test new drugs\u00a0and other therapies, all without\u00a0risk to humans. Now, a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A New Era for Organoids - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A New Era for Organoids - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","og_description":"Researchers have long grown three dimensional\u00a0living tissues called\u00a0organoids to study how healthy\u00a0tissues work, what happens when\u00a0disease strikes, and to test new drugs\u00a0and other therapies, all without\u00a0risk to humans. Now, a…","og_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/","og_site_name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/","name":"A New Era for Organoids - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-11-19T15:47:13+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/a-new-era-for-organoids\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A New Era for Organoids"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/","name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","description":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/51553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}