Advancing drug discovery for Inflammatory bowel diseases through human intestinal organoid-based models

The lag in the development of novel IBD therapies reflects the complex nature of the disease and our poor understanding of its pathogenesis. The future breakthrough in understanding IBD and developing novel IBD drugs require development and adaptation of novel disease-relevant experimental models, including organoid-based models, to evaluate the efficiency and accurately predict response to therapy. Indeed, presently the utilization of intestinal organoids in the IBD field has been limited and were not used in the development of any of the currently available therapies, including biologics (anti-TNF, anti-12/IL23, anti-α4β7) and small molecules. The authors affirm that a stepwise approach would help accelerate future organoid-based drug discovery efforts.