Bridging the organoid translational gap: integrating standardization and micropatterning for drug screening in clinical and pharmaceutical medicine

Abstract

Synthetic organ models such as organoids and organ-on-a-chip have been receiving recognition from administrative agencies. Despite the proven success of organoids in predicting drug efficacy on laboratory scales, their translational advances have not fully satisfied the expectations for both clinical implementation and commercial applications. The transition from laboratory settings to clinical applications continues to encounter challenges. Employing engineering methodologies to facilitate the bridging of this gap for organoids represents one of the key directions for future advancement. The main measures to bridge the gap include environmental and phenotypic recapitulation, 3D patterning, matrix engineering, and multi-modality information acquisition and processing. Pilot whole-process clinical/ pharmaceutical applications with fast and standardized organoid models will continuously offer convincing frontline optimization clues and driving forces to the organoid community, which is a promising path to translational organoid technologies.