A functional Lung out of Human Stem Cells

A medical research group at Columbia university in the city of New York has successfully been able to convert human stem cells to a functional lung. This comes as a medical and engineering breakthrough to the world. The idea stands out because scientist and engineers have been trying to develop a fictional organ out of stem cells and were able to create cells such as nerve, retina, and blood cells. However, not only was the research group at Columbia coming up with something new, they actually faced a great deal of challenges until reaching a result. Hans-Willem Snoeck, professor of medicine (in microbiology & immunology) and affiliated with the Columbia Center for Transnlational Immunology and the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative says,  “When an embryo develops, it first makes three layers of cells, or germ layers – ectoderm, which will become the skin and nervous system, mesoderm, which will become the heart, muscle, connective tissues, blood vessels, blood and kidney, and endoderm, which will become the intestine, liver, pancreas, stomach, esophagus, thyroid, thymus parathyroids, and lung,” “The endoderm forms last which is probably one reason why it is harder to specify from stem cells,” he continues.

This research has set a foundation for a new method of dealing with issues concerning  lung diseases and transplants. Even though the research has not come up with anything that is 100% usable, it still offered the possibility of something significant developing in the future. “Now, we are finally able to make lung and airway cells. This is important because lung transplants have a particularly poor prognosis. Although any clinical application is still many years away, we can begin thinking about making autologous lung transplants—that is, transplants that use a patient’s own skin cells to generate functional lung tissue,” asserts Hans-Willem Snoeck.

One may argue that this research is still young and still needs pursuing. I believe that is is still a great approach to solving many medical issues we face,not only in the respiratory system, but also in various parts of the body that may benefit from this type of research. That is why making these kind of approaches in science and engineering is what makes us come closer to bigger discoveries in the future.

Sources:

http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/publications/in-vivo/vol4_iss1_mar_apr_05/stem_cell.html

http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2013/12/01/human-stem-cells-converted-functional-lung-cells/

http://www.gizmag.com/convert-human-stem-cells-lung/30041/