Lo and Behold, the Lab-Grown Organs Have Arrived!

Model organisms have played essential roles in biological studies over the centuries. Typically fast-growing in laboratory settings and fertile with numerous offsprings, various model species including C. elegans, D. melanogaster and M. musculus have provided the in vivo contexts for making novel observations and testing emerging hypotheses. One important goal of such research efforts has been and will be extrapolating the knowledge to human species. Using model organisms has been without question a successful approach to this end as much of the molecular mechanisms associated with development, metabolism and pathogenesis are conserved across metazoan species.