Living Organs as Micro-Factories: Material-Producing Organoids

Self-organizing tissues, such as organoids, offer transformative potential beyond healthcare by enabling the sustainable production of advanced materials. Resource scarcity and global warming drive the need for innovative fabrication solutions. This prospective review explores developmental biology as a manufacturing process, where the material (e.g., spider silk) and its production unit are self-organized (e.g., silk glands). Biological systems orchestrate the emergence of hierarchical materials with superior mechanical properties and biodegradability, using abundant and renewable resources. Tissue engineering enables the creation of biological systems that surpass current synthetic designs in complexity. We highlight application opportunities, focusing on spider silk as a model to demonstrate how organs synthesize and assemble next-generation materials. The concept of growing both a material and its organ production units is exemplified by hair-bearing organoids, self-organized from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Key challenges in expanding organoid research to new model species and scaling-up production are discussed alongside potential solutions. We propose a simplified description of these complex systems to help address key challenges. Furthermore, synthetic and hybrid approaches are explored, considering the ethical, societal, and technological impacts. Though still in their infancy, material-producing organoids present a promising avenue for sustainable, high-value products, fostering new interdisciplinary collaborations among bioengineers, developmental biologists, and material scientists. This work aims to inspire further exploration into the applications of self-organized biological systems in addressing global challenges. This article is categorized under: Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in Biology Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Cells at the Nanoscale.