The results allow us to imagine a future in which organs destined for transplant can be regenerated and improved before being implanted.
BARCELONA, Oct. 31. (EUROPA PRESS).- A research team led by the Bioengineering Institute of Catalonia (IBEC) has developed a technology pioneer that allows produce organoides kidney humans in a scalable way, combine them with kidneys of pig out of the body and transplant them back into it animalevaluating its viability after the transplant.
Published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, the study “represents a milestone in the field of regenerative and personalized medicine” and was carried out in collaboration with the Biomedical Research Institute of A Coruña (INIBIC) and with international research groups, the IBEC reported this Friday in a statement.
This work, led by the current Minister of Research and Universities of the Generalitat, Núria Montserrat, when she was a principal researcher at the IBEC, is the result of “a scientific career of more than a decade dedicated to regenerative medicine and organ bioengineering.”
For the first time, the research team managed to combine human kidney organoids with live porcine kidneys, connected to normothermic perfusion machines.
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🔬 A breakthrough in regenerative medicine: scientists from the#IBEC have managed to implant human mini-kidneys into pig kidneys and keep them functional.A new step towards the future of transplants. We explain it to you 👇 pic.twitter.com/YztInRXVgq
— IBEC (@IBECBarcelona) October 31, 2025
The use of these devices, commonly used in operating rooms to keep the organ alive and oxygenated outside the body before a transplant, made it possible to insert human organoids into porcine kidneys and monitor their integration and function in real time.
Combination of technologies
Montserrat explained that this research demonstrates that the combination of organoid and “ex vivo” perfusion technologies can “allow cellular interventions under fully controlled conditions.”
“The long-term goal is to be able to regenerate or repair an organ before transplant. This could reduce the waiting time for chronic patients and increase the number of viable organs for transplant,” he added.
𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗚𝗔𝗗𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗦 𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗔Ñ𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗦𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗡 𝗣𝗢𝗥 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗔 𝗩𝗘𝗭 𝗥𝗜Ñ𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦 𝗗𝗘 𝗖𝗘𝗥𝗗𝗢 𝗠𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗗𝗢𝗦 𝗖𝗢𝗡 𝗖É𝗟𝗨𝗟𝗔𝗦 𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗥𝗘 𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗦
A team led by @IBECBarcelona in collaboration with the @microchuac y… pic.twitter.com/6ilzbNp6i5
— Fed. Nac. ALCER official (@FNALCER) November 2, 2025
Organoide
A kidney organoid is a three-dimensional structure, a few microns in size, grown in the laboratory from human stem cells. Although it is not a complete organ, “it reproduces many of its main structures and functions” and allows us to study how the kidney develops.
The new method allows thousands of kidney organoids to be generated under controlled conditions and in a short time, with great precision and without the need for complex components, which “opens the door to applications such as drug detection or the study of diseases.”
The use of these machines “makes it possible to measure physiological parameters of the organ in real time and detect any sign of damage or rejection.” The team observed that, after 24 and 48 hours after transplantation, the human organoids remained integrated into the porcine kidney tissue, maintained their viability and did not trigger any significant immune response.
According to the authors, this methodology allows us to imagine a clinical scenario in which organs destined for transplant can be treated and conditioned before implanting them, thus prolonging their useful life.