Health

3D ‘lung-on-a-chip’ model developed to test new therapies for COVID-19 and other lung conditions

Globally, lung failure is one of the leading causes of death. Many conditions can affect and damage the lungs, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, influenza, pneumonia, and, most recently, COVID-19. To better understand respiratory diseases and develop new drugs faster, investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital designed a 3D “lung-on-a-chip” model of the distal lung and alveolar structures, the tiny air sacs that take in oxygen as you breathe. With this innovation, researchers are actively studying how COVID-19 viral particles travel through airways and impact pulmonary cells. Notably, this technology enables scientists to investigate how various COVID-19 therapies, such as remdesivir, impact the replication of the virus. Their results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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