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Researchers have created a laboratory-developed, three-dimensional organoid model derived from human tissue and designed to understand the early stages of cancer in the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ), the point where the food pipe of the digestive system meets the stomach. Using CRISPR-Cas9, the researchers also eliminated two key tumor suppressor genes, TP53 and CDKN2A,c in the organoids. The dual inactivation of these genes made the cells more cancerous, with faster growth and microscopic features closer to malignancy. These altered organoids also formed tumors in immunodeficient mice. The team further found abnormalities in lipids that store energy but also perform a variety of other functions, and identified platelet activating factor as a key lipid upregulated in GEJ organoids. The researchers used WEB2086, which stopped the growth of implanted GEJ organoid tumors. WEB2086, a Food and Drug Administration-approved compound used to treat platelet diseases, inhibits platelet activating factor receptors in GEJ.

In a World View opinion column published in Nature, a Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher calls for animal-human embryo research to proceed – but only with strong animal protections in place. So-called “chimera” research raises the hope of producing human organs in genetically modified large animals, such as pigs and sheep, offering a potential solution to the persistent shortage of human organs for transplantation.

Miniature human-brain-like structures transplanted into rats can send signals and respond to environmental cues. Researchers grew the structures from human stem cells and then injected them into the brains of newborn rat pups. After six months, the organoids became fully integrated into the rat brains. The approach could lead to a way to test therapies for human brain disorders. But some researchers have ethical concerns about such experiments: creating rodent–human hybrids could harm the animals or produce animals with human-like brains