Harvard’s campus is completely non-smoking.
However, there is one exception, which is a robot from the Wyss Bioengineering Institute. For science, this robot can suck up to 10 cigarettes at a time.
Of course, researchers created the robot to study the effects of traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes on the lungs.
The robot consists of a ventilator that simulates the smoking process and many chips that have long lung cells.
The researchers are putting cigarettes on the robot
Smoke from smoking passes through these "lungs" that grow on the chip and is then expelled to mimic the smoking and breathing processes of humans.
The robot is smoking
These chips, which are used to simulate the lungs, are not simple. There are many hollow tubes inside them. The lung cells grow on the walls of these tubes, just like the bronchus in the real lungs.
These cultured lung cells, like real cells, have mucus and cilia on the surface that help filter out the contaminants in the gas that is sucked into the lungs.
There are many cilia on the surface of lung cells growing on the chip.
The simulated "lung" on the chip is like a part of the real lung, and the smoke through the chip is like passing through the bronchi.
This small ventilator can mimic smoke inhalation and exhalation
The robot, made by researchers, can replace time-consuming and laborious animal experiments to study the effects of smoking on the lungs and to find drugs for diseases caused by smoking.
If human cells are available, stem cells can be induced and differentiated into lung cells to create an in vitro simulation of "lungs" for the development of personalized medical protocols and drugs.
"lung" chip
Harvard University scientist Dr. Kambez Benam pioneered the use of this robot to study chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease caused by smoking is the third leading cause of death worldwide.
Dr. Benam and his team converted cells from patients and healthy volunteers into lung cells and placed them on the chip to "smoke" in the robot.
They found that as many as 147 genes in both cells expressed different levels after smoking.
The smoke produced by e-cigarettes also affects the function of lung cells. After using electronic cigarettes, the ciliary movements on the surface of the two cells appear differently.
Robot controller that can set different smoking rates and speeds
Norman Edelman, senior scientific consultant at the American College of Pulmonary Diseases who did not participate in the study, said the system is very useful. It can be used not only to study the effects of smoking on the lungs, but also to study other substances that may irritate the bronchus.
Of course, this robot also has its limitations. It is not yet able to mimic the consequences of long-term smoking, and it ignores the link between the lungs and other organs.
However, we still hope that this robot and its simulation "lung" can bring new drugs to patients with lung disease as soon as possible.
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