Mini-gut: a promising model for drug development
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 23, 2026

A Gut-on-a-Chip Model to Study the Gut Microbiome-Nervous System Axis
Published on: July 28, 2023
Yue-Bang Yin1, Hugo R de Jonge2, Xin Wu3
1Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences; National Engineering Laboratory for Pollution Control and Waste Utilization in Livestock and Poultry Production; Hunan Provincial Engineering Research Center for Healthy Livestock and Poultry Production, Changsha, Hunan, 410125, China; Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Until recently, major advances in drug development have been hampered by a lack of proper cell and tissue models; but the introduction of organoid technology has revolutionized this field. At the level of the gastrointestinal tract, the so-called mini-gut comprises all major cell types of native intestine and recapitulates the composition and function of native intestinal epithelium. The mini-gut can be classified as an intestinal organoid (IO), derived from pluripotent stem cells, or as an enteroid, consisting only of epithelial cells and generated from adult stem cells. Both classifications have been used as models to develop drugs against cystic fibrosis, cancer and infectious disease, as well as for drug screening, personalized medicine and the development of new medical tools. In this review, we highlight and discuss the importance of mini-guts for drug development and point out their limitations and future prospects.
More Related Videos
07:02A Computerized Test Battery to Study Pharmacodynamic Effects on the Central Nervous System of Cholinergic Drugs in Early Phase Drug Development
Published on: February 11, 2019
11:003D Flipwell Engineering for Developing Asynchronous Systems for Toxicologic and Immunomodulatory Therapies in Bacterial, Gut, and Immune Cells
Published on: October 17, 2025
Related Concept Videos
In Vitro Drug Release Testing: Overview, Development and Validation
In Vitro Drug Dissolution: Compendial Testing Models I
In Vitro Drug Dissolution: Compendial Testing Models II
Physiology of Enteric Nervous System and Gut Health
Sustainable Development
Pharmacokinetics: Drug–Drug Interactions