The establishment of organoid culture systems represents a milestone on the route toward successful personalized medicine. This mini review provides an update on the current status of organoid technology and summarizes their applications in personalized medicine. Organoids can be defined as 3D structures derived either from pluripotent or organ restricted stem cells harboring the ability to mimic in vivo architecture and multi lineage differentiation of terminally differentiated tissues. Due to their unique ability of virtually unlimited self-renewal, organoid cultures should be distinguished from previous 'sphere'-culture assays, for example, 'tumor spheres' that have already been described and applied over the last decades.
Keywords: drug development; embryonic stem cells; induced pluripotent stem cells; organoids; personalized medicine; targeted therapy.