A lab at the University of Arizona is developing an innovative model to study pulmonary diseases.
University of Arizona researchers are growing an organ that mimics a lung on a leaf to study lung diseases and develop personalized medicine. Dr. Kenneth Knox said this is a meaningful way to move the field forward and encourage collaborations across disciplines.
“My lab is interested in getting better models to study these diseases and more biologically relevant models than just putting cells in a well and culturing them,” said Dr. Knox.
He said the vasculature of a leaf resembles the vasculature in airways of a lung, which is why they chose a leaf. The research also provides a way to avoid testing on animals.
Co-collaborators on the study are Louise Hecker, Mrinalini Kala, Kenneth Knox, Jerome Lacombe, Tina Wang, Ryan Zenhausern and Frederic Zenhausern.
