Scalable production of uniform and mature organoids in a 3D geometrically-engineered permeable membrane
The application of organoids has been limited by the lack of methods for producing uniformly mature organoids at scale. This study introduces an organoid culture platform, called UniMat, which addresses the challenges of uniformity and maturity simultaneously. UniMat is designed to not only ensure consistent organoid growth but also facilitate an unrestricted supply of soluble factors by a 3D geometrically-engineered, permeable membrane-based platform. Using UniMat, we demonstrate the scalable generation of kidney organoids with enhanced uniformity in both structure and function compared to conventional methods. Notably, kidney organoids within UniMat matured significantly better, showing increased expression of nephron transcripts, more in vivo-like cell-type balance, and better vascularization. Moreover, UniMat's design offers a more standardized organoid model for drug testing, as demonstrated by its consistent response to a polycystic-kidney-disease drug. In essence, UniMat presents a transformative platform for organoid technology, promising applications in organ development, disease modeling, and drug screening. Overall design: We performed single-cell RNA sequencing to compare kidney organoids differentiated in AggreWell and UniMat.