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From organoid culture to manufacturing: technologies for reproducible and scalable organoid production

Despite the absence of a fully established regulatory framework or unified technological standard for industrial-and clinical-grade organoid biomanufacturing yet, substantial progress has been made toward building the technical and institutional infrastructure required for scalability and reproducibility. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) introduced the Good In Vitro Method Practices (GIVIMP)19, an international quality-assurance framework that defines laboratory quality systems, method qualification, reference controls, equipment calibration, and data integrity—principles that now potentially serve as quantitative benchmarks for process validation in organoid production. Complementing this, the NIH Standardized Organoid Modeling (SOM) Center was recently established to promote the development of organoid platforms that are reproducible, robust, and broadly accessible for translational biomedical and pharmaceutical research.

Expanding these standardization efforts, a recent publication introduced the Essential Guidelines for Manufacturing and Application of Organoids, delineating a systematic workflow encompassing cell sourcing, culture optimization, quality control, and biobanking logistics20. Their framework identifies organ-specific critical quality attributes (CQAs)—including growth-factor composition, morphological fidelity, and quantitative analytical metrics—and recommends standardized cryopreservation conditions (~100–200 organoids per vial) to enhance batch comparability. Likewise, a recent study established quantitative criteria for human intestinal organoid standardization, specifying cell-line provenance, minimum lineage composition thresholds (e.g., ≥30% enterocytes), and molecular marker expression profiles consistent with physiological differentiation21. Taken together, these coordinated initiatives—from international organizations to national agencies and individual laboratories—represent an emerging global framework toward reproducible, quality-controlled, and scalable organoid biomanufacturing, laying the groundwork for eventual regulatory convergence and clinical translation.

In response to these prevailing limitations and in alignment with global standardization trends, a range of engineering strategies has been developed, shifting the paradigm from organoid culture to organoid manufacturing by enabling reproducible and scalable organoid production. These strategies broadly focus on two goals: improving reproducibility by minimizing uncontrolled variation in the culture environment as well as by regulating intrinsic morphogenetic processes, and enhancing scalability by increasing productivity and throughput. To this end, recent advances can be categorized into three major domains: cellular engineering approaches that regulate morphogenetic processes through programmed cell organization; material-based strategies that establish defined and controllable environmental cues; and platform-or system-level innovations that enable high-throughput and automated workflows. Together, these innovative engineering advances mark aion toward more standardized, efficient production workflows.

Percutaneous Cryoablation of Metastatic Lesions from Colorectal Cancer: Efficacy and Feasibility with Survival and Cost-Effectiveness Observations

To assess feasibility, complications, local tumor recurrences, overall survival (OS) and estimates of cost-effectiveness for multi-site cryoablation (MCA) of oligo-metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in a prospective study.

Massive Global Study Rewrites the Biology of Type 2 Diabetes

A large global genetics study shows that many key drivers of Type 2 diabetes operate outside the bloodstream. Scientists are getting a clearer picture of why Type 2 diabetes is so hard to pin down. In a major international project led in part by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Helmholtz

Bacteria Form Stronger Mars Bricks Despite Toxic Soil

“When the effect of perchlorate on just the bacteria is studied in isolation, it is a stressful factor,” said Swati Dubey. “But in the bricks, with the right ingredients in the mixture, perchlorate is helping.”


How can engineers design bricks on Mars for future habitats despite the toxic Martian regolith, also called perchlorates? This is what a recent study published in PLOS One hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated how bacteria can be used to construct strong bricks on Mars despite the presence of perchlorates. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, and future Mars astronauts develop novel methods for designing future Mars habitats.

For the study, the researchers tested perchlorates on Martians bricks built with regolith simulant and bacteria, also called biocementation, to ascertain how the perchlorates affected the integrity of the bricks, and specifically how the bacteria responded to the perchlorates. The goal of the study was to ascertain how perchlorates could influence Martian brick construction methods using bacteria, the latter of which has been explored in past studies using the soil bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii. In the end, the researchers found that despite the perchlorates slowing the growth of the bacteria within the bricks, the process resulted in stronger bricks.

Cross-species cellular mapping and humanization of Fcγ receptors to advance antibody modeling

A new Science Immunology study highlights the limitations of preclinical models for human antibody-based drugs, and demonstrates how a humanized mouse model may improve study outcomes.


Preclinical modeling of human IgG–based drugs is enhanced through humanized Fcγ receptor and FcRn expression in a murine knockin model.

Pancreatic tumors eliminated in mice without resistance developing

Current drugs for pancreatic cancer lose effectiveness within months because the tumor becomes resistant. Now, a group from Spain’s National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has been able to avoid the development of resistance in animal models with a combined triple therapy. Mariano Barbacid, head of the Experimental Oncology Group at the CNIO, has designed a therapy that successfully eliminates pancreatic tumors in mice completely and durably, with no significant side effects.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with Carmen Guerra as co-lead author and Vasiliki Liaki and Sara Barrambana as first authors.

“These studies open the road to designing novel combination therapies that may improve the survival of PDAC patients [pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma—the most common type of pancreatic cancer],” the authors state. “These results set the course for developing new clinical trials.”

Enzyme required for transition from monocyte to tissue-resident macrophage identified!

A new study found that an enzyme involved in protein translation is essential for circulating immune cells, called monocytes, to mature into tissue-resident macrophages, a specialized population of immune cells that maintain organ health by clearing dead cells and debris. Without this enzyme, monocytes enter tissues but fail to fully differentiate, leading to impaired tissue maintenance and persistent immune cell infiltration that causes inflammation instead of repair.

The research, published in Nature, showed that deoxyhypusine synthase (DHPS) is required for both the differentiation and long-term survival of macrophages across multiple organs, including the lung, liver, brain, kidney, heart and peritoneal cavity.

Using a series of mouse models, the investigators demonstrated that DHPS controls a core, tissue-agnostic program that enables macrophages to adhere to their local environment, interact with surrounding cells and carry out the essential functions that maintain tissue balance and organ health.

The researchers traced these defects to the polyamine–hypusine pathway. Analyses of gene activity, protein production and protein-making machinery revealed that DHPS is required for efficient translation of a subset of genes involved in cell adhesion (the ability to stick to their surroundings and to other cells so they can stay in the correct place and function properly), signaling, and tissue interaction. Without DHPS, macrophages failed to express key proteins needed to anchor themselves within tissues and respond appropriately to local cues.

Imaging studies showed that DHPS-deficient macrophages had abnormal shape and positioning within tissues, while functional assays demonstrated defects in the clearance of dead cells and tissue maintenance. In the lung, this impairment led to accumulation of surfactant material, a substance in the lungs that keeps air sacs open, and immune cell infiltration, while in the liver, acute macrophage depletion followed by failed restoration resulted in vascular disruption and tissue damage. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission.

When Familiar Faces Feel Better: A Framework for Social Neurocognitive Aging in a Rat Model

New in eNeuro from Dutta Gupta et al: Some older male rats prefer familiarity over new social situations, which can be reversed via transcranial magnetic stimulation without affecting hippocampus-mediated spatial memory.

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Social cognition, central to emotional and cognitive well-being, is particularly vulnerable to aging, where impairments can lead to isolation and functional decline. Despite compelling evidence that altered social behavior is associated with cognitive decline and dementia risk, experimental strategies for testing causative links remain scarce. To address this gap, we aimed to establish a rat model for research on social neurocognitive aging. We conducted a large-scale behavioral study in 169 male young (6 months) and aged (24−25 months) Long-Evans rats. In order to explore potential relationships among aging outcomes, we first documented individual differences in a widely validated water maze test of hippocampal learning and memory. Sociability and social novelty were then evaluated in the same subjects using the three-chamber social interaction test. Aging induced a selective shift in social novelty preference, marked by a striking familiarity bias in a substantial subpopulation of old rats, while sociability remained entirely normal. Changes in social novelty preference were completely independent of individual differences in spatial memory, and unrelated to anxiety or sensorimotor function. Notably, neuromodulation via TMS enhanced social novelty preference selectively in aged rats that exhibited a social introversion phenotype before treatment, consistent with the possibility that this aging condition reflects a distinct and modifiable neural network state. Together, the results establish a valuable preclinical framework for developing a comprehensive neurobiology of social cognition in aging.

Significance statement Social behavior is a critical yet underexplored component of cognitive aging. While both human and animal studies report age-related narrowing of social networks, the behavioral and neurobiological underpinnings remain unclear. Using a well-powered rat model, here we demonstrate preserved sociability in aging alongside marked individual differences in social novelty preference. A subset of aged rats preferred familiar over novel conspecifics, resembling patterns observed in older humans and non-human primates. Social phenotypes were independent of hippocampal-dependent memory, suggesting a dissociation between these aging outcomes. This dissociation was further validated using transcranial magnetic stimulation, supporting the notion of distinct underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Collectively, the findings lay a powerful foundation for advancing the translational neurobiology of social behavior in cognitive aging and reserve.

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