Project Grant R01DK142669

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases awarded the University of Washington $839,388 on August 15, 2026, under the Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.847) to develop engineered human liver tissue for heterotopic transplant and therapeutic rescue of liver disease.

The project addresses the critical shortage of donor organs for patients with end-stage liver disease by developing cultured human hepatocytes as organoids that can be engrafted in vivo within engineered tissues to therapeutically rescue animals with acute and chronic liver failure. The research team has demonstrated preliminary success in culturing and transiently propagating adult human hepatocytes in vitro while retaining their ability to engraft in vivo, established a parallelized screening method to identify tissue microenvironments supporting organoid engraftment, and developed models enabling engraftment of engineered liver tissues in mice with both acute and chronic liver injury. The study aims to test the hypothesis that implantable human hepatocyte-derived organoids can provide functional rescue in disease models, with work drawing on synergistic expertise in liver tissue engineering, bioengineering and biofabrication, clinical liver surgery and hepatology, liver cell biology, liver pre-clinical animal models, and biostatistics.

Performance of work takes place in Seattle, Washington. The period of performance runs through June 30, 2030. The award is structured as a Project Grant.