The colorectal cancer is one of the most common digestive tract tumors globally, which seriously threatens the human health. In recent years, a gratifying progress has been made in the organoid culture technology, making the organoid technology an essential new tool for studying the colorectal cancer mechanisms and the clinical translation. This paper reviews the niche signaling pathways in the colorectal cancer, the application progress of the organoid technology in the colorectal cancer modeling, the tumor microenvironment research, the drug screening and the individualized therapy, as well as the current challenges of the organoid technology and the future development directions of the organoids from the perspectives of the organoid culture technology standardization and the engineering technology applications.

To gain a better insight into the mechanisms of the human disease calls for stable and reliable in vitro and in vivo models to reproduce the physiological and pathophysiological processes of human tissues and organs. Cellular and animal models provide critical tools for modeling the human condition, but due to the deficiencies of these methods, we may fail to comprehend the human diseases accurately. Organoids originate from the stem cells based on the cellular self-organization and development principles, and are similar to the native organs in structure and functions. However, most organoids can not mimic the functions of the mature organs due to lacking controllable biochemical and biophysical stimulations. Organ-on-a-Chip is an emerging cutting-edge technology in the last decade by culturing multiple cells on the microfluidic chips to model the physiological and pathological microenvironments of the organs veritably. This technology provides three dimensional microphysiological systems with the tissue-tissue interface and the multiple physicochemical stimulations. Organoid-on-a-Chips, the integration of the organoids with the organ-on-a-chip technology, provide a better biomimetic environment for the traditional organoid culture system and avoid the shortage of the conventional organoid technology. The organoid-on-a-Chip technology promises to be a potential in vitro disease model. In this review, we focus on the construction of disease models on the organoid-on-a-chip and the research advances in the disease mechanism. We also discuss the current obstacles and the future trend of this technology.

As the main component of the human circulatory system, the cardiovascular system plays an important role in maintaining the normal life activities of the human body. Limited by the battery life of the traditional implantable cardiac electronic medical devices, it is difficult to achieve the long-term, uninterrupted monitoring and treatment. The newly developed self-powered technology solves this problem. In this paper, we review the types and the principles of the self-powered technology, and the application of the self-powered technology in the implantable cardiac electronic medical devices from three aspects: the energy supply, the sensing and the electrical stimulation. The development of the self-powered implantable cardiac electronic medical devices is discussed from the perspectives of the energy collection and storage management, the long-term biocompatibility of the implants, and the biological effects of the electrical stimulation.