Success of Lab-Grown Colons Could Transform Future Crohn's and Colitis Research

Wells first began publishing his studies in 2009. In the first series of studies, Wells and colleagues grew embryonic-stage small intestines using human pluripotent stem cells. The grown intestines had the antrum and fundus portions of the human stomach with a functioning nervous system.

One of the first authors and postdoctoral fellows from the Wells laboratory included Jorge Munera who noted in a paper that the human colon is one of the most difficult parts of the gastrointestinal tract to generate, in comparison with other parts. This is one of the points that marks the interest of the current study.