lung-derived stem cells tagged posts

3-D bioengineered lung-like tissue (left) resembles adult human lung (right). Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center

By coating tiny gel beads with lung-derived stem cells and then allowing them to self-assemble into the shapes of the alveoli found in human lungs, researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have succeeded in creating three-dimensional lung “organoids.” The laboratory-grown lung-like tissue can be used to study diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which has traditionally been difficult to study using conventional methods. “While we haven’t built a fully functional lung, we’ve been able to take lung cells and place them in the correct geometrical spacing and pattern to mimic a human lung,” said Dr...