Federation of American Scientists :: Publications and Reports. Cancer Immunity. Cancer Research Institute. Science News, Articles and Information | Scientific American. Living, breathing human lung-on-a-chip. Photo courtesy of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering/Harvard University The lung on a chip, shown here, was crafted by combining microfabrication techniques from the computer industry with modern tissue engineering techniques, human cells and a plain old vacuum pump. Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have created a device that mimics a living, breathing human lung on a microchip. The 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. Because the lung device is translucent, it provides a window into the inner-workings of the human lung without having to invade a living body.
Click here to watch an interview with Donald Ingber. The work is being published in tomorrow’s edition of Science. Room to breathe The team followed this experiment with a “real-world application of the device,” says Huh. Organs-on-chips. New Technique Makes LED Lighting More Efficient | Applied Sciences. ZeitNews. OwniSciences, Société, découvertes et culture scientifique.