Scientists use magnetic levitation to make in vitro lung tissue more realistic

In a development that could lead to faster and more effective toxicity tests for airborne chemicals, scientists from Rice University and the Rice spinoff company Nano3D Biosciences have used magnetic levitation to grow some of the most realistic lung tissue ever produced in a laboratory.

Scientists from Rice University and the Rice spinoff company Nano3D Biosciences have used magnetic levitation to grow realistic lung tissue in vitro. From left are Glauco Souza, Jacob Gage, Tom Killian, Jane Grande-Allen and Hubert Tseng.
The research is part of an international trend in biomedical engineering to create laboratory techniques for growing tissues that are virtually identical to those found in people’s bodies. In the new study, researchers combined four types of cells to replicate tissue from the wall of the bronchiole deep inside the lung…

…“Growing realistic lung tissues in vitro is a particular challenge,” said study co-author Jane Grande-Allen, professor of bioengineering at Rice. “There are a number of technical obstacles, and scientific funding agencies have placed a particular emphasis on lung tissue because there’s a large potential payoff in terms of reducing costs for pharmaceutical and toxicological testing.”