Reverse engineering the beat: Assembloid modeling of sympathetic control of the heart

Junsung Nam; Roy Simamora; Fikri Birey

doi:10.1016/j.stem.2025.12.012

Reverse engineering the beat: Assembloid modeling of sympathetic control of the heart

Cell Stem Cell. 2026 Jan 8;33(1):1-3. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2025.12.012.

Authors

Junsung Nam¹, Roy Simamora¹, Fikri Birey²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30307, USA.
² Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30307, USA. Electronic address: fikri.birey@emory.edu.

PMID: 41512830
DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2025.12.012

Abstract

Liu et al.¹ generate human sympathetic ganglion organoids and assemble them with heart-forming organoids to build functionally connected sympathetic-cardiac organoids in vitro. Their platform captures autonomic development, neuromodulation of heart function, and metabolic injury, opening new opportunities to study human autonomic disorders and cardiometabolic disease.².

MeSH terms

Animals
Ganglia, Sympathetic* / cytology
Heart* / innervation
Heart* / physiology
Humans
Organoids* / cytology
Sympathetic Nervous System* / physiology