Organoid Technology: Disease Modeling, Drug Discovery, and Personalized Medicine

The last three decades have witnessed revolutionary growth in the fields of biomedical science and pioneering the same in regenerative medicine and disease modeling. Historically, biological research has been performed using 2-dimensional animal cell culture, but now we are switching to more intricate 3-dimensional models for better replicability of experimental results. Organoids are stem cell-derived 3D cell cultures that are the cornerstone of this new development. They retain the significant features of biological organs and have opened up new, previously not-thought-of avenues to steer research in personalized healthcare and disease modeling. The current chapter encapsulates how organoids came into the picture, addresses the current research occurring worldwide, and discusses futuristic aspects and applications. The significance of organoids in disease modeling is discussed in detail, and the following aspects, such as disease modeling in congenital conditions, cancer, infectious diseases, gene editing, and futuristic microfluidics, were elucidated. This chapter also covers the role of organoids in drug discovery. Drug discovery is a very time and money-intensive process, and many attempts have been made over the years to bring about change in the same. It has been noted that the development of many new drugs is being hindered due to the complexity of the human genome. This point has been elaborately discussed in this present chapter, along with the potential of organoids as a solution in high- throughput drug screening and personalized treatment. The chapter concludes with a look at how the COVID-19 pandemic has underpinned the use of organoids in drug research and disease modeling, and finally, it provides a summary of future research directions.