A device that mimics a living, breathing human lung on a microchip has been developed by researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston.

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.

The lung-on-a-chip microdevice takes a new approach to tissue engineering by placing two layers of living tissues—the lining of the lung’s air sacs and the blood vessels that surround them—across a porous, flexible boundary. Air is delivered to the lung lining cells, a rich culture medium flows in the capillary channel to mimic blood and cyclic mechanical stretching mimics breathing. The device was created using a novel microfabrication strategy that uses clear rubbery materials.

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. 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. Such a tool may help accelerate pharmaceutical development by reducing the reliance on current models, in which testing a single substance can cost more than $2 million.

More info: Harvard Medical School news