Respiratory medicine
Professor Nicholas Forsyth
Lung diseases are frequently difficult to treat and impossible to cure; over the last few years we have had a strong focus on the development of tools to support respiratory research via the creation of pig lung and airway cell models and the translation of these models into human systems using cells generously donated by patients with COPD and asthma. This will allow us to better understand these diseases, test drugs, and create possible regenerative medicine treatments such as the development of our tissue engineered lung equivalents (TELEs).
These are 3D lung models where patient cells are cultured on porous scaffolds to mimic lung architecture that may benefit patients who are developing severe emphysema. More recently we have broadened our interests to include the pleural membrane with the aim to study the properties of the native tissue and to develop a tissue engineered pleural patch to assist in the prevention of air leaks, a common problem following lung surgery.
