(1/5) In the world of weird and unexpected organoids, today we introduce a cardiac/gut model derived from human iPSCs, that we deposited last week @biorxivpreprint disq.us/t/3octfy4 #organoids

(2/5) What started as a “control” for a completely different series of experiments, turned into its own unique line of research due to the observant eye of @AnaSilva_illust, and @OrianeMatthys & @ArielKauss who fed her cultures while Ana was home for the holidays in Dec 2017.

(3/5) Some organoids survived in culture for >2 years, growing to several mm’s in size, without any perfused vasculature - defying diffusion and classic dogma in the #tissueengineering field.

(4/5) Turns out the cardiac/gut organoids exhibit more functionally mature properties than either type of tissue alone, suggesting a synergistic cooperative relationship, and yield more atrial/nodal CMs than is typical.

(5/5) These odd organoids represent a new type of model to study paracrine mechanisms between distinct adjacent tissues that emerge within a single spheroid of mixed progenitors. Thanks to collaborators @benoitbruneau @m_alexanian