3D-printed artificial lung model holds promise for drug screening and studying viral response

Researchers have announced the fabrication of the thinnest ever in vitro model of the human lung utilizing inkjet bioprinting, with potential applications for screening the safety and efficacy of new drug candidates and studying disease progression. The human lung is a hugely complex organ. With each alveolus being formed of several layers of numerous cell types stacked into a membrane rarely thicker than 0.6 μm, previous in vitro models of human lungs have struggled to replicate the complexity of cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions. However, a new study in Advanced Science presents a 3D-printed lung model only 10 μm thick and...