How do complex biological structures—an eye, a hand, a brain—emerge from a single fertilized egg? This is the fundamental question of developmental biology, and a mystery still being grappled with by scientists who hope to one day apply the same principles to heal damaged tissues or regrow ailing organs.

Now, in a study published May 31 in Science, researchers have demonstrated the ability to program groups of individual cells to self-organize into multi-layered structures reminiscent of simple organisms or the first stages of embryonic development.

Leonardo Morsut, an assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at USC, contributed to the research as a co-corresponding author when he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

“For me,” said Morsut, “this is the realization of a dream and a first step that demonstrates a new way of building biological structures.”

Morsut and his colleagues performed the research in the UCSF lab of co-corresponding author Wendell Lim.

To read more, visit stemcell.keck.usc.edu/synthetic-tissues-build-themselves.