Smoking machine helps researchers understand cigarette hazards

Developed by a team from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the technology consists of a lab-on-a-chip device which supports cells from normal or diseased human lungs and an instrument that "breathes" cigarette smoke in and out over these chips.

Using the device, the research team was able to recreate and analyse the effects of smoking at the molecular, cellular, and tissue level to gain a better understanding of the damage caused by COPD and identify potential therapies.

"It's one of the lung diseases that has very few therapeutics available in the market,” said researcher Kambez H. Benam. “Most of the drugs given are to control the symptoms; there is no cure to reverse or prevent disease progression."

To understand how smoking affects the small airways damaged in COPD, the researchers first built a lung airway-on-a-chip. These devices are made of a clear flexible rubber the size of a computer memory stick lined with living human cells.