Team creates lung organoid with branching structures

In a paper published Monday in Nature Cell Biology, researchers at Columbia University developed three-dimensional lung bud organoids (LBOs) from human pluripotent stem cells and said they could be used to model lung disease.

Researchers generated the LBOs by differentiating and expanding lung and airway epithelial cells from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. At day 25, the LBOs were transplanted to mice or Matrigel 3D culture. They developed branching airway and alveolar structures consistent with late second trimester human gestation by day 170...