Dear Colleagues,

Recent advances in stem cell and developmental biology have propelled the design of three-dimensional (3D) organoids that are able to mimic different organs in vitro, including the breast, brain, intestine, pancreas, prostate, amniotic sac, liver, gastric, and optical cup. These organoid models have been shown to be able to reflect human tissue during early embryogenesis, permitting the investigation of the interactions between different cell types within the developing organ as well as the self-organization processes that lead to its functional tissue cytoarchitecture and how the organ is affected in different developmental diseases. Moreover, patient-derived organoids (PDTO), including those derived by the culture of tumor biopsies, have been shown to not only recapitulate key aspects of the disease in vitro but also be predictive of the therapy response in patients, thus constituting an elemental tool for personalized medicine.

This Special Issue will be dedicated to publishing original work and reviews using organoids in the areas of pharmacology, bioinformatics, cell and cancer biology, drug screenings, bioengineering, genetics, etc. on aspects that will contribute to better understanding at the molecular level of human diseases, with potential applications in personalized medicine.

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• organoid models of human disease
• molecular mechanisms of human disease studied in organoids
• molecular profiling and bioinformatic analysis of patient-derived organoids
• precision medicine
• drug testing and genetic manipulation in organoids
• drug screenings in patient-derived organoids