A Step Towards Replacement Lungs

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Via BusinessWire, news of early stage progress in engineering lung tissue for regenerative therapies and similar applications: "The growth of functional three dimensional organ structures begins with proof of concept studies showing that organ subunits can successfully be generated. This work takes us a step closer to realizing this goal which we hope will be applicable to all organs in the future ... a combination of 3-D cell growth on a [hydrogel] support and the addition of tissue-specific growth factors can induce functional lung tissue development. In a paper entitled, "Engineering Three-Dimensional Pulmonary Tissue Constructs," the authors report on their success in creating pulmonary tissue with appropriate lung tissue morphogenesis, architecture, and branching, as well as specific gene and protein expression."

Link: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060505005082