Engineered Human Colon Organoids
In mice studies, researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital have begun to reveal the cellular signals that give rise to the cecum, colon and rectum, and have advanced that knowledge to deriving organoid models of those tissues for drug testing. According to this piece: “To develop a model for generating the human colon, scientists first identified SATB2 (special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 2) as a definitive molecular marker for hindgut in frogs, mice and in humans. SATB2 is a DNA-binding protein that facilitates structural organization of chromosomes in the nucleus of cells. The protein sequence of SATB2 is remarkably similar between frogs, mice and humans. This led the authors to the hypothesis that molecular signals regulating SATB2 in frogs and mice could be used to make human colon organoids that express the protein.” MORE WITH VIDEO
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