Lab-Grown Mini-Hearts With Blood Vessels Mark Major Advance in Human-Specific Medical Research

Study in a Sentence: Scientists have overcome a major hurdle in organoid research by successfully growing mini-hearts and mini-livers with blood vessels.

Healthy for Humans: Lab-grown mini-organs, such as mini-brains and mini-hearts, mimic human organs and offer powerful tools to study development, human disease, and drug responses. Until now, these organoids were limited by their number of blood vessels, limiting their size and function. In a groundbreaking success, researchers have developed heart and liver organoids with branching blood vessels, enabling more realistic growth and function of the human heart and liver, possibly paving the way to similar advances in other organs. This development will propel the study of human biology, including heart and liver issues, early embryonic development, and the effects of drug exposure on human organs—while also supporting advances in personalized medicine.

Redefining Research: As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration moves to reduce animal testing in the coming years and turn to organoids and other human-focused technologies to evaluate drug safety and effectiveness, this breakthrough supports the shift toward more human-specific and successful models for studying cardiovascular health and evaluating new therapies.