Engineered thoracic spinal cord organoids for transplantation after spinal cord injury

Yanjing Zhu, Ruiqi Huang, Liqun Yu, Zhibo Liu, Yuchen Liu, Wenyong Fan, Gufa Lin, Zhaojie Wang, Xiaolie He, Xu Xu, Bei Ma, Youwei Chen, Yuxin Bai, Jing Li, Bairu Chen, Liming Cheng & Rongrong Zhu

Nature Biomedical Engineering, 24 October 2025 / Volume 10, 2262–2282 (2026)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-025-01549-8

This Journal Club explores how regional identity and functional integration can be engineered to improve organoid-based spinal cord repair. The study uses a bioactive matrix to generate human spinal cord organoids with thoracic characteristics, which integrate with host tissue and support partial motor recovery after transplantation in mice.
The discussion focuses on matching grafts to the injury site and establishing functional host–graft connections, with implications for combining organoid transplantation with synapse-organizing strategies to enhance circuit reconstruction.

11/04/2026 11:38 AM | Journal Club