Engineered lung tissue platform for respiratory disease modeling, monitoring, and therapeutic development

PI: Charlie Ren

Co-PI(s): N/A

University: Carnegie Mellon University

Industry partner: Organoid Technologies

Due to exposure to airborne pollutants and smoking, chronic respiratory diseases remain a significant health threat and affect up over 35 million Americans. The COVID-19 pandemic further emphasizes the need for effective industry-academy collaboration to develop robust industrial pipelines for effective therapeutic development against emerging respiratory threats. Leveraging CMU’s strength in organ bioengineering and our connection with a local biotechnology company (Organoid Technologies), our objective is to lay the groundwork to develop a robust engineered lung tissue platform for respiratory disease modeling, monitoring, and therapeutic development. We will first establish an analytical pipeline for real-time assessment of inflammatory cytokine-induced mucus hypersecretion in the engineered lung tissue, and then establish a pilot secretory signature panel for monitoring airway inflammation induced by real-life respiratory threats. We expect to deliver a viable lung tissue model that can closely mimic human pathophysiology; can be mass-produced; and can be patient-specific to enable personalized therapeutic development. Through local industry collaboration, this project will help to keep PA at the forefront of industry translation of advanced biomedical science and technology, promote the PA economy, and bring improved healthcare to individuals suffering from air pollution (several PA cities remain among the most polluted in the US).