The groundbreaking work, detailed in Cell, marks the first time scientists have created lung organoids with integrated vascular systems that closely mirror how lungs develop in the human body. The advance opens the door to potentially growing other vascularized organ models, including intestines and colons, providing unprecedented tools for studying diseases, testing drugs and developing personalized treatments.

“The earliest stages of human development are still a black box in many ways,” said senior author Dr. Mingxia Gu, a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. “This new method to vascularize lung organoids chips away at this black box by better recapitulating the natural organ development process.”