title: Organoids: A historical perspective of thinking in three dimensions.
abstract: In the last ten years, there has been a dramatic surge in the number of publications where single or groups of cells are grown in substrata that have elements of basement membrane leading to the formation of tissue-like structures referred to as organoids. However, this field of research began many decades ago, when the pioneers of cell culture began to ask questions we still ask today: How does organogenesis occur? How do signals integrate to make such vastly different tissues and organs given that the sequence of the genome in our trillions of cells is identical? Here, we summarize how work over the past century generated the conceptual framework that has allowed us to make progress in the understanding of tissue-specific morphogenetic programs. The development of cell culture systems that provide accurate and physiologically relevant models are proving to be key in establishing appropriate platforms for the development of new therapeutic strategies.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Nanosistemas, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, San Martín 1650, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina msimian@unsam.edu.ar.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2070-3793
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simian
authors.affiliation: Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 msimian@unsam.edu.ar.
authors.forename: Mina J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5841-4423
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Bissell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000266:history*; D003585:Cell Biology / Q000266:history*; D003584:Cytological Techniques / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D038081:Organogenesis; D009940:Organoids / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques / Q000266:history