Transplant medicine has generally been successful at the organ, tissue, and cell levels. A study published in Cell in March 2026 attempts something at a smaller level: transplanting a single type of organelle from healthy cells into sick ones.
The organelle is the mitochondrion, and the delivery vehicle is unusual. Researchers at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, wrapped healthy mitochondria in vesicles derived from red blood cell membranes, producing capsules roughly 1 micrometer in diameter, each containing a single organelle.
