Key takeaways
- A 2024 study by Zhang and colleagues in ACS Macro Letters tested a gelatin hydrogel as a growth matrix for tooth organoids. The team is from King’s College London, Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute.
- Mouse embryonic dental cells formed early tooth-germ-like structures in the softest of three gels within 8 days. Structures formed once in the middle gel and not at all in the stiffest.
- No tooth, enamel or dentin was reported; nothing was transplanted, and the work was not done in people.
- The need is real: WHO estimates that oral diseases affect nearly 3.7 billion people. What works today is prevention.
Tooth organoids are not lab-grown teeth yet. In a 2024 lab study, a soft, tunable gelatin gel helped mouse embryonic dental cells organize into early tooth-germ-like structures in 8 days, while stiffer gels mostly did not. It is a useful step toward learning what materials tooth cells need, but it has not produced a tooth and has not been tested in people.
Why researchers want to regrow teeth
Losing a tooth is usually the end point of long-term disease. WHO estimates that oral diseases affect nearly 3.7 billion people, that untreated decay in permanent teeth is the most common health condition worldwide, and that severe gum disease affects more than 1 billion. Complete tooth loss affects almost 7% of adults aged 20 and over and about 23% of people aged 60 and over.
Current replacements, such as dentures, bridges, and implants, are artificial. The study’s authors note that they often fail to restore a tooth’s natural form and function fully. Regenerative dentistry is the field trying to close that gap.
How the study worked
The paper, Zhang et al. in ACS Macro Letters, was published online on 12 November 2024. The lead author is Xuechen Zhang of King’s College London, and the corresponding authors are Adam Celiz (Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute) and Ana Angelova Volponi (King’s College London).
A tooth starts as a bud when two tissue layers, the dental epithelium and the dental mesenchyme, signal to each other. If those cells are separated, mixed back together and given the right surroundings, they can reorganize into a tooth-germ-like structure called a tooth organoid. The surroundings matter, which is where the hydrogel comes in.
The team started with gelatin chemically tagged with one of two small molecules, tetrazine or norbornene. Mixing the two tagged gelatins makes them link together in a “click” reaction. The authors chose this chemistry because it is bioorthogonal: it proceeds under physiological conditions without interfering with the cells’ own chemistry. By changing the gelatin concentration (8% or 12%) and the ratio of the two tags (1 or 0.5), they made three gels of different stiffness, with an elastic modulus of roughly 2 to 7 kPa. All three stayed stable in culture for at least two weeks.
They took dental epithelial and mesenchymal cells from mouse embryos at embryonic day 14.5, packed them together as a pellet in each gel, and cultured them for 8 days. As a comparison, they also placed whole embryonic tooth germs in the same gels. The mesenchymal cells carried a green fluorescent marker, so the team could check whether the two cell types had really mixed.
What was shown, and what was not
| Finding | Evidence | Limit |
| The softest gel (8% gelatin, ratio 0.5) supported tooth organoid formation | Organoids formed consistently in 13 pellets; sections showed an epithelium and condensed mesenchyme, and the green-marked cells had mixed with the epithelial cells | Mouse embryonic cells, 8 days, one study |
| Stiffer gels did not | Organoids formed once in 9 pellets (middle gel) and in none of 6 (stiffest); the cells formed epithelial cysts and undefined round structures instead | Small groups; the gels also differ in polymer density, so stiffness is the leading explanation, not the only one |
| Whole embryonic tooth germs grew more slowly in stiffer gels | 6 tooth germs per gel; the stiffer groups lacked late cap-stage features at day 8 | Small groups |
| Cells survived in all three gels | Over 70% viability after 1 day (the supplement describes human dental pulp stem cells for this test) | One day only; not a safety test |
| A tooth, enamel or dentin formed | Not reported | The structures were not grown further or transplanted |
| It works with human tooth cells or in people | Not tested | No human data |
In plain terms, this study is about the environment. The same cells formed organoids in one gel but failed in others, suggesting tooth cells respond to the physical feel of their surroundings. The authors argue that tuning the gel is pivotal. Because this gel is defined and adjustable, other labs can change one setting at a time, which is harder with the collagen and Matrigel gels used before.
Why it is not a treatment yet
- Mouse embryonic cells only. The authors used fresh embryonic mouse cells because dental cells lose their tooth-forming ability when cultured for long periods. A human treatment would need a practical human cell source. Earlier work from the same group combined human gum epithelial cells with embryonic mouse tissue to form teeth, so the cell source is still an open research question.
- Early stage only. The structures were examined after 8 days. The paper reports no transplant into a jaw and no mature tooth tissue. Earlier animal studies cited in the paper did report engineered tooth germs developing into teeth after transplant; this study did not take that step.
- No added growth factors. The authors included none and suggest that future work could add soluble factors to the gel.
- Small samples. Groups held 6 to 13 samples, from a single lab.
- Projections are not findings. The university’s press release quotes the researchers describing lab-grown teeth that would integrate into the jaw, last longer and avoid rejection. Those are hopes for the technology, and this paper did not test them. The release also says the gel releases signals slowly over time; I found no measurement of that in the paper.
- Two possible routes, neither tested. Zhang described ideas for transplanting young tooth cells into the gap or growing a whole tooth in the lab first. Both depend on starting early tooth development in the lab, which this study addresses.
What else is moving in tooth regeneration
Other approaches sit at different stages, and each has its own evidence. The details below come from a trade review (Dentistry.co.uk, updated 18 September 2026).
- An antibody drug, TRG035 (Toregem BioPharma, Japan). It blocks USAG-1, a protein that holds back tooth development. A Phase I safety study in 30 healthy men missing a molar began in October 2024. The Japanese registry lists it as complete, and the company says it confirmed safety, but it has not made detailed results public. A Phase IIa dosing study in 24 children with severe congenital tooth agenesis is planned. The regulator has finished reviewing the trial notification, which is not approval, and no start date has been announced. It has not been shown to regrow teeth in people.
- Engineered teeth from human and pig cells (Tufts University, February 2025). In the same review, cells on a pig-tooth scaffold developed dentin and cementum after two weeks in a miniature pig’s jaw.
- Hydrogels and organoids more broadly. A 2026 review in Biomaterials Advances covers dental hydrogels and organoids and says early clinical studies with hydrogel scaffolds and stem cell constructs are emerging. I read only its abstract.
What you can do today
Nothing from this study is available to patients, so there is nothing to ask a dentist for. The practical steps are about keeping the teeth you have, following WHO’s prevention advice:
- Brush twice a day with fluoride toothpaste (WHO suggests 1000 to 1500 ppm fluoride).
- Eat a diet low in free sugars, meaning sugars added to food and drink plus those in honey, syrups and juices, and make water your main drink.
- Avoid all forms of tobacco and cut down on alcohol.
- See a dentist if you have pain, bleeding gums or loose teeth.
The bottom line
This study is a careful materials result: a soft, tunable gelatin gel helped mouse embryonic dental cells form early tooth-like structures, and stiffer gels did not. It is not a lab-grown tooth, it has no animal-transplant or human treatment data, and the human tooth cells in it appear only in a one-day survival test. Treat headlines about “growing teeth” as a reason to follow the research, and keep protecting your own teeth in the meantime.
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References & Further Reading:
Zhang, Y. et al. (2024). Generating Tooth Organoids Using Defined Bioorthogonally Cross-Linked Hydrogels. Cell Stem Cell.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2024.03.004
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). Tooth Development and Regeneration.
World Health Organization. Oral health fact sheet. 17 March 2025.
King’s College London. Lab-grown teeth might become an alternative to fillings following research breakthrough. 14 April 2025.
Dentistry.co.uk. Tooth regrowth in adults: what we know so far. Published 18 August 2026, updated 18 September 2026.