Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in the UK have developed an advanced ‘lung-on-a-chip’ model using stem cells derived from a single individual, enabling scientists to study how a person’s lungs respond to respiratory infections, including tuberculosis.
Led by Dr. Max Gutierrez, the innovation marks a significant step forward in personalized medicine. By testing treatments on a miniature version of a patient’s own lung, therapies can be tailored more precisely, while reducing the need for animal experiments.
The organ-on-a-chip technology cultivates lung cells on a thin membrane within a device that mimics natural breathing. This allows researchers to closely observe how immune cells interact with disease-causing bacteria during the earliest stages of infection.
Unlike earlier models that used a mix of cells from multiple donors, this approach relies on genetically identical cells from a single person, creating new opportunities to study disease progression and develop individualized treatments.
Laboratory tests revealed that the lung’s cellular barrier began breaking down five days after tuberculosis infection, effectively replicating the early stages of the disease in humans.
The breakthrough aligns with global efforts to find alternatives to animal testing and advance personalized medicine, which takes into account individual differences in disease susceptibility and treatment response.
