How Lab-Made "Mini-Organs" Can Treat Cystic Fibrosis

Yet, making a single ‘mini-gut’ and determining whether the patient with CF would benefit from a particular drug is highly expensive. The program itself is funded through organizations such as patient foundations, health insurance companies, and the government. Researchers are hoping to reveal how such replicas can provide an insight as to how certain diseases can be treated. To determine if particular drugs could help cystic fibrosis patients, the drugs are given to the custom-made organs in the laboratory. Researchers see if the mini organs bloat, meaning the cells are properly balancing water and salt content. Researchers are also using the mini guts as a different approach to gene therapy. They hope that someday in the near future, using customized gene therapy could prove to be effective in repairing the defective gene in the cells of CF patients.  Several other experiments are also underway in the United States and the Netherlands to pinpoint cancer treatments involving the pancreas, lungs, and ovaries.