Real, Breathing Human Lung On a Computer Chip

June 25th, 2010

Scientists have developed a real, working and breathing human lung on a microchip. Researches from Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston, have created a device, about the size of a rubber eraser, acts much like a lung in a human body and is made using human lung and blood vessel cells. And you thought your Slingbox was revolutionary.

The researchers hope that the creation will help to develop pharmaceuticals much faster, and that more importantly will lower the need for animal testing.

The translucent lung device provides a window into the inner-workings of the human lung without having to invade a living body. It has the potential to be a valuable tool for testing the effects of environmental toxins, absorption of aerosolized therapeutics and the safety and efficacy of new drugs.

“The ability of the lung-on-a-chip device to predict absorption of airborne nanoparticles and mimic the inflammatory response triggered by microbial pathogens, provides proof-of-principle for the concept that organs-on-chips could replace many animal studies in the future,” says Donald Ingber, senior author on the study and founding director of Harvard’s Wyss Institute.

The paper appears in the June 25 issue of Science.