01835nas a2200145   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260000900043100002300052245008700075856006100162490000600223520144600229022001401675       2025                            d  c20251 aISoOR Insight Team00aNIH Shift Away from Animal-Only Research Signals a Major Opportunity for Organoids  uhttps://jobs.isoor.org/index.php/journal/article/view/610 v33 aIn April 2025, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a landmark shift that will reshape biomedical  research for decades: the agency will no longer issue Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) that rely exclusively on  animal models. Instead, all future funding calls must include—or explicitly permit—the use of non-animal methods  (NAMs), including organoids, microphysiological systems, computational models, human-derived tissues, and  advanced in vitro approaches. This policy, formalized at the first FDA–NIH “Workshop on Reducing Animal Testing” on  July 7, 2025, marks an unprecedented reorientation of federal funding priorities toward human-relevant, ethical, and  translationally predictive model systems. For the organoid field, the implications are vast: expanded funding,  accelerated standardization, infrastructure scaling, enhanced regulatory relevance, and deeper integration into drug  development and precision medicine. Yet the shift also presents scientific and practical challenges, including issues of  reproducibility, biological complexity, and global regulatory acceptance. This article analyzes the motivations behind  the NIH decision, its transformative significance for organoid science, the challenges ahead, and the role of standards  such as ISoOR-ISOB and the newly funded Standardized Organoid Modeling (SOM) Center in shaping the next era of  biomedical research.  a3029-2271