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

While the idea is promising, there are challenges that present themselves in growing mini cancer tumors in laboratories. Mathew Garnett of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute stated that making tumors in a laboratory that behave the same as real-life tumors is far more difficult than it may seem. Moreover, developing the cells and testing them must occur far more quickly for patients with cancer who might not have much time left to live, he recalled. Madeline Lancaster at Cambridge University stated “We can study physical changes and try to generate drugs that could prevent detrimental effects of disease, but we can't look at the complex interplay between organs and the body”. Thus, there are limitations to growing replicas of organs in a laboratory.