Ovation for Organoids

What am I looking at?

This image shows a breast organoid, with the milk-producing cells in red (1) and the contractile cells that surround the milk-producing cells in blue (2).

Biology in the background

Organoids are “mini-organs” grown in a lab that allow researchers to study the structure and function of an organ in a controlled environment. Breast organoids are used to study a wide array of research topics, including development, lactation, and breast cancer. The organoid in this image was created in a quest to better understand the relationship between milk-producing cells and the muscle-like cells that wrap around them to force milk out and into the network of ducts that collect the milk and funnel it to the nipple.

Breast organoids can grow to over 500 micrometers wide, or roughly seven times larger than the width of a human hair, and thus are visible with the naked eye as a tiny dot.

Technique

This image was produced using confocal microscopy.