Mini-stomachs grown in lab to help us digest cancer data

The pea-sized organs will be used to test drugs and could lead to breakthroughs in treating acid reflux

- James Tapper

Scientists have created mini-stomachs in a laboratory for the first time, paving the way for treatments for rare diseases that have received little attention from researchers.

The pea-sized miniature stomachs are being used to test drugs for individual patients, offering personalised medicine for sufferers of serious and life-limiting conditions.

The research, by a team from University College London (UCL) and Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh), London, might also lead to better treatments for conditions such as acid reflux, which affects about a quarter of adults in the UK and can increase the risk of oesophageal cancer. “This is a major step forward and could have implications for more common diseases of the stomach lining, which millions of people suffer from,” said Prof Paolo De Coppi from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, and a co-lead author of the study.

“We have now been able to test treatments for a very rare gastric condition,” he said. The condition, PMM2-HIPKD-IBD, affects only a handful of children a year, and De Coppi stressed that investigations for treatments were in the early stages.

He is optimistic that the mini-stomach systems will help provide a solution for many diseases, but the research team began with PMM2-HIPKD-IBD. The aim was to help some of the children at GOSH, like