A step towards building miniature human livers

Recapitulating the complexity of human organs in vitro would accelerate drug discovery and enable personalized treatments. By combining different types of liver cell from donor tissues, in vitro models of a liver region that mirror some of the organ’s main structures and functions can be assembled, getting closer to reproducing mini livers in vitro. ‘Assembloids’ consisting of various liver-cell types mimic several structural and functional features of the organ.