The general aim of this lecture was to review the technology and use of organoids and embryoids. In the last ten years or so, there has been an upsurge in the production and use of such animal replacement systems in the study of phenomena and pathologies as diverse as embryonic development, cancer-related processes or even the physiology of the central nervous system.
The first successful organoids were those reproducing the manufacture of retinas in vivo, thanks to improvements in embryonic stem cell culture conditions, the engineering of the necessary artificial matrices and the use of cytokines and other molecules to control these complicated phenomena.
Today, virtually every organ can be the subject of corresponding organoids (with varying degrees of success), and it is gradually becoming possible to transfer much of the work carried out on animals to in vivo conditions, which are necessary and indispensable, for example, for mass screening or toxicological analyses. As a result, organoids have gradually become part of everyday practice in many laboratories, and are now the subject of special conferences attended by an ever-increasing number of scientists.
The aim of this lecture was therefore to familiarize the public with the many facets of these new technologies, including their history, technical challenges, examples of organoids already used in clinical research and future prospects. Details of the lecture are given below.