Mini Lungs for Cancer Research
Most lung cancer research is first tested on animal lungs before humans. Unfortunately, 75% of the successful treatments for animals are not successful with humans. So, scientists have recently come up with an alternative that does not use animals. They have developed a way to test new treatments on an artificial lung, which consists of based human lung cancer cells growing on tissue that is about the size of a sugar cube. Scientists have reported that the artificial lungs give a more accurate prediction of what will be successful with humans. Researchers hope to some day have individual lung models for each patient to provide an even more accurate prediction of the outcome of treatments for each patient.
NOS themes:
-science is collaborative
-role of motivation
-importance of repeatablily
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Cool article! Not only are scientists trying to find ways to recreate artificial lungs, but they are also trying to recreate parts of the brain and mini kidneys as well. For more information about the mini brain and kidneys go to http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/08/first-mini-lungs-mini-kidneys-and-mini.html
ReplyDeleteI found an interesting article about a program at Vanderbilt University where scientists are trying to create a "model human" in which its liver, heart, lungs and kidney will be interconnected and function the way a real human's does! The emphasis was to create a liver which would respond to toxins just the way a real one does. I honestly think that this is INSANE! The speed at which science is changing and moving forward makes me dizzy! I can only hope to be a part of the progress one day!
ReplyDeleteThe Article: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2014/03/benchtop-human/
This is so interesting! The idea of having one for each individual patient is a great idea and I feel it would save a lot of lives. Scientists are also using other artificial parts of humans to test cancer treatments. It is amazing how far medicine has advanced lately.
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