Women's health research faces many challenges. One obstacle is the limited understanding of the fundamental biology underlying conditions like endometriosis. Normally, such gaps are bridged by research using animal models, but these models are severely lacking in women’s health.
The reason behind this lack of suitable animal models, while frustrating, is interesting in and of itself.
Humans are not the only mammals to menstruate, but our menstrual cycles are unique to us. Rodents, such as mice, do menstruate but their cycles are very different to ours and most lab mice strains do not menstruate at all. The picture is even more unclear when it comes to studying menopause, as humans are one of the only mammals to enter menopause - the other being some species of whales. For many reasons, whales are clearly not an ideal model organism!
This underscores the need for alternative approaches. In recent years, organoids have emerged as a powerful tool across multiple disease areas. Now, researchers in women’s health are harnessing their potential.
What are organoids?
Organoids are 3D tissue cultures. They replicate many aspects of organs, in that they contain multiple types of cells organised in a structured, multi-dimensional architecture, enabling interactions that traditional two-dimensional cell cultures cannot mimic.
Why are they useful for women’s health?
Organoids can be made from human cells, eliminating the limitations associated with animal models. This human-specific approach allows researchers to study women’s health conditions in a way that is far more representative of real biology, paving the way for breakthroughs in understanding and treatment.
What organoids are useful?
Women’s health spans many different physiological systems, and this is reflected in the breadth of organoids that are being used for research. Below are some of the most promising applications.
Placenta
The placenta is crucial for supporting a developing baby throughout pregnancy. However, we still don’t know much about the early stages of placental development. We know that the placenta is “invasive” and invades the uterine lining, and that the timing and depth of invasion of the human placenta is different to that of mice1. It is also known that problems early on can lead to serious health problems later in the pregnancy for both the mother and baby.
There are clear ethical and practical issues with using and accessing first-trimester tissue, making studying early pregnancy challenging.
Organoids are thus a clear use case for studying the placenta. Currently placental organoids are being used to understand the basic biology of the regulation of invasion, as well as hormone secretion (such as hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin)) and immune interactions.
It is hoped that placental organoid research will shed light on conditions like pre-eclampsia, miscarriage and placental insufficiency. For example, if the placenta does not receive enough blood it can start to release harmful molecules which trigger pre-eclampsia2 – thus studying early invasion would be helpful to understand this process further.
One drawback of organoids is the extracellular matrices, such as Matrigel, which are used to support the cells. These are animal-derived and thus introduce variability. One team at the University of Sydney has addressed this by developing a bioprinted placental organoid model, in which the cells are precisely placed into a synthetic hydrogel using extrusion and droplet-based methods. This enables even more precise modelling of the placental tissue architecture and function.
Endometrium
The endometrium is the inner lining of the uterus. It has a fascinating role in the menstrual cycle: regulated by the female reproductive hormones estradiol and progesterone, it continually sheds and regenerates.
Endometrial organoids are being used to mimic the menstrual cycle by supplying these hormones to the culture and studying how the organoids react in the dish3.
They are also being used to study endometriosis, a debilitating condition that affects 1 in 10 women (ref our previous blogs to endo) for which there is currently no cure. The CurE-me Project, led by the BioInnovation Institute in Copenhagen and KU Leuven, aims to use their biobank of endometriosis patient-derived organoids to screen drug candidates and develop new therapeutics4.
Additional applications include researching endometriosis-associated infertility issues, such as implantation, and endometrial cancer biology research (the most common gynaecological cancer).
Vagina
A hot topic in women’s health right now is the vaginal microbiome – and organoids can play a role here too. In common with the points above, the vaginal microbiome in mice is different to that of humans.
Generally, organoids are hollow or solid balls of cells. What makes the vaginal organoids interesting is that researchers deliberately break up these balls to create an “open-faced” organoid with media on one side and exposed to air on the other side – to more precisely mimic the environment of a human vagina so that the microbiome can be more accurately studied5.
Ovaries
Human ovarian organoids (termed “ovaroids”) developed at the Wyss Institute have been shown to spontaneously form follicle-like structures and even secrete and respond to multiple female reproductive hormones6. Importantly, these ovaroids include granulosa cells, which are crucial for supporting egg cell growth and maturation. This work was in collaboration with Gameto, who have applied this technology to their novel IVF procedure in which immature eggs are retrieved from a woman and incubated within the ovarian support cells in vitro, to maximise the number of usable eggs for IVF.
Beyond fertility, increasing attention is on the role of ovaries in the overall longevity of women. Ovaries age at almost twice the rate of other tissues. This is a complex multi-system area of research – and organoid research is playing a part in putting the pieces of the puzzle together. The aim is to develop human organoids to screen compounds which might delay or reverse this ageing7.
With ovarian cancer the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women, ovarian organoids are also being used to study ovarian cancer and screen potential therapies.
Breast milk
The Cambridge Lactation Lab has developed organoids to study lactation. They discovered that breast milk itself contains secretory cells and were able to isolate these to make organoids8. The aim is to get these organoids to produce breast milk in vitro to further our understanding of why some women find it difficult or are unable to breastfeed, as well as issues like low milk supply. Another question the team hopes to address is the extent to which medicines enter breastmilk. Understanding this further could have huge implications for breastfeeding women, such as allowing them to take certain medicines previously not advised, and whether drugs could be harmful to the baby.
Intellectual Property surrounding organoid research
Patent filings for organoids have increased exponentially in the last decade9, and currently focus on organoid construction methods, specific organoid models (the leading ones being liver, brain and intestine), disease models (such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and enteritis) and drug screening methods.
Technological developments include innovations in cell culture, such as a shift from Matrigel to synthetic hydrogels and bioprinting, as well as integration of microfluidics, bioreactors and real-time monitoring methods.
The field is moving towards more complex systems with multi-organoid platforms and vascularisation strategies to address nutrient diffusion limits. This is very relevant for women’s health research - for example, much of endometriosis pathology and endometrial shedding is driven by vascularisation.
Organoids and the future of women’s health research
We are excited by the potential impact that organoid technology may bring to many areas of the women’s health field. If you would like to discuss how we can help you protect your organoid or women’s health innovation, please reach out to a member of our Women’s Health team.
- https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03029-0
- Roberts, J. M. & Escudero, C. Pregnancy Hypertens. 2, 72–83 (2012)
- https://www.technologynetworks.com/drug-discovery/articles/endometrial-organoids-are-advancing-womens-health-397646
- https://www.technologynetworks.com/drug-discovery/articles/endometrial-organoids-are-advancing-womens-health-397646
- https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03029-0
- https://wyss.harvard.edu/technology/human-ovarian-organoids-to-improve-womens-health/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03029-0
- https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/putting-womens-health-in-the-spotlight
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004222010008
Fay is a patent attorney in our life sciences team. She has an undergraduate BSc degree in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol and a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Cambridge. During her undergraduate degree, Fay undertook a one year industry research placement in synthetic biochemistry, developing alternative protein expression systems in bacteria. Her doctoral research focused on mitochondrial dysfunction, particularly mitochondrial metabolism during ischaemia-reperfusion injury and heart transplant. Fay joined Mewburn Ellis LLP in 2019.
Email: fay.allen@mewburn.com
