Revealing the architectural secrets inside mini-organs

Organs grow into a variety of shapes and architectures. Observing what happens inside organs as they develop is difficult in living embryos, but lab-grown organoids can offer a convenient alternative. Using brain tissue organoids, scientists at the IMP and collaborators have now for the first time measured, described, and manipulated the physical mechanisms that lead to the emergence of shape and architecture in developing tissues. Their work makes a fundamental contribution to advancing three-dimensional tissue engineering and is now published in the journal Nature Physics.