Are there any animal-free/synthetic surfaces that are suited for growing organoids?
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Going tiny is the next BIG thing: Tools and Techniques for Organoid Cultures
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Corning® Matrigel matrix is one of the most successful animal based extracellular matrix that has been used to culture organoids. There are multiple reports on engineering a synthetic matrix to grow organoids with the studies being compared to their morphology/functionality in Matrigel matrix. Researchers have succeeded in generating them for a specific organoid or application and there is a lot of ongoing work. Example can be found in references listed below.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v539/n7630/abs/nature20168.html
http://www.pnas.org/content/113/44/E6831
This post is sponsored by Corning.