Creating a smoking machine
While it is well known that cigarette smoking is a major cause of lung disease, and a key exacerbating factor for patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it has not been possible to effectively model its deleterious effects on human lungs under normal breathing conditions. In an article in Cell Systems, a multidisciplinary team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University describes an instrument they engineered that can “breathe” in and out, actively smoke regular and electronic cigarettes much like a human, and deliver the smoke to microfluidic organs-on-chips lined by human lung small airway cells isolated from non-smokers or COPD patients. The integrated smoking system gives researchers a better understanding of smoke-related pathological changes in individual smokers, and could facilitate the discovery of more accurate biomarkers and new therapeutic targets. Smoking Human Lung Small Airway on a Chip In this video, Wyss Director Donald...