Lung scarring is just about everything which isn't cancer and scarring is equally destructive although slower in process. Research has come up with a way to synthesize lung tissue from stem cells to produce functional test tissue in a lab dish. (Science Daily: Stem cells grown into 3-D lung-in-a-dish)
Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center
The problem to solve:
To study the effect of genetic mutations or drugs on lung cells, researchers have previously relied on two-dimensional cultures of the cells. But when they take cells from people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and grow them on these flat cultures, the cells appear healthy. "Scientists have really not been able to model lung scarring in a dish," said Gomperts, who is a member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. The inability to model idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the laboratory makes it difficult to study the biology of the disease and design possible treatments.
The result of the research:
Using the new lung organoids, researchers will be able to study the biological underpinnings of lung diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and also test possible treatments for the diseases.
Left: bioengineered lung tissue / Right: normal adult lung tissue
Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center
To study the effect of genetic mutations or drugs on lung cells, researchers have previously relied on two-dimensional cultures of the cells. But when they take cells from people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and grow them on these flat cultures, the cells appear healthy. "Scientists have really not been able to model lung scarring in a dish," said Gomperts, who is a member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. The inability to model idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the laboratory makes it difficult to study the biology of the disease and design possible treatments.
The result of the research:
Using the new lung organoids, researchers will be able to study the biological underpinnings of lung diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and also test possible treatments for the diseases.
Likely anyone with lung deficits has been advised of scarring due to COPD, emphysema, or other so that's why the interest in this research without any particular expertise in it. Quite possibly this research could wind up having deep relevance for a great many people in terms of what subsequent research with the synthetic tissue will reveal.
This is another for which we can't go too far out into sci fi since it's there already. They're, in effect, building a lung in a jar and my mind is fairly imaginative but it's not likely to top that soon.
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