Forces of Change: Mechanics Underlying Formation of Functional 3D Organ Buds

3D organ buds that can recapitulate organ function have myriad applications for regenerative and personalized medicine. Here, Takebe et al. (2015) describe a generalized method for organ bud formation, demonstrating that mechanosensitive mesenchymal stem cells drive condensation of heterotypic cell mixtures to create buds from diverse organs.