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Glimpse of the Future
These Mini Lungs in a Dish Are Helping Scientists Study the Coronavirus
The tiny structures mimic Covid-19 infection in patients
Every week, Future Human’s Glimpse of the Future brings you an image of the science being deployed to solve the world’s pressing problems.
These balloon-like structures are actually miniature lungs made of living tissues that “breathe” like the real thing. Known as lung organoids, they mimic the tiny air sacs of the lungs, called alveoli — where coronavirus infection and serious lung damage occur. They measure just a fraction of a millimeter in diameter.
To make them, researchers at Duke University started with lung stem cells and fed them a cocktail of nutrients and growth factors until they grew into 3D clumps that resemble miniature alveoli. When exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in a biosafety lab, the mini-lungs reacted to the virus in the same way as the lungs of Covid-19 patients. For instance, the cells launched an inflammatory response and released a “cytokine storm” of immune molecules. The researchers described their organoids in a recent paper in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Organoids are becoming helpful scientific models because they more closely represent the functions of human tissues and…
