Bladders in a dish shed light on bladder cancer

Tissues engineered in vitro often lack the complexity of their in vivo counterparts, limiting applications, notably for disease modelling. In this study, Kunyoo Shin and colleagues generated bladder assembloids made of a multi-layered urothelium, a stroma of fibroblasts and endothelial cells, and an outer muscle layer. These assembloids recapitulate organ composition and physiology. In addition, using cells derived from cancer patients, the authors generated tumour bladder assembloids, providing insights into the pathogenesis of urothelial carcinoma. This work provides a unique model for the study of bladder physiology and cancer.