Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the third
leading cause of death globally, but medics don’t
know exactly how it affects sufferers’ lungs.
Now, researchers at Harvard University have built
a robot which smokes cigarettes – the disease’s
primary risk factor – just a like a human , in an
attempt to address the knowledge gap.
The device comprises an elaborate smoking
system and a “lung on a chip”, allowing scientists
to monitor the impact of smoke on human cells.
In a short video explanation (see above),
Harvard’s Don Ingber explains that the system
could help researchers develop more effective
treatments for the illness. Researchers said that neither animal testing nor
conventional human cell testing provides an
accurate representation of how humans smoke.
Even human studies have their shortcomings,
according to scientists, as smoking effects
different people in different ways.
But the “lung on a chip” solves this problem.
Researchers can insert a sample of a person’s
lung cells into “the lung on a chip”.
They can then monitor the impact of the smoke
on the sample cells, and compare it with the
actual lungs of the non-smoker participant.
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