3D human airway models to better understand lung immune responses
Official title: Technology Development Project - Increasing the complexity of ex vivo human airway models for studying immune response to viral infection
Funded at Jackson Laboratory · NIH-11330399 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project builds more realistic 3D lab-grown human lung tissues to help researchers learn how lungs and immune cells react to viruses, which could help people with respiratory infections.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Jackson Laboratory NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Bar Harbor, United States) |
| Project start | March 5, 2019 |
| Project end | February 28, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $748,306 |
| NIH project number | 5U19AI142733-08 |
| Project ID | NIH-11330399 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal contributors would be people who can donate airway or lung tissue or cells (for example during bronchoscopy or lung surgery) or volunteers who want to provide airway samples for related studies.
✕Less likely to help
Patients seeking immediate treatment for a current lung infection are unlikely to receive direct clinical benefit from this lab-focused technology development work.
What this research studies
Researchers will create bioprinted 3D airway and lung tissues that include air flow and blood-vessel like channels so the tissue behaves more like a real lung. They will add human immune cells such as macrophages, dendritic cells, and T cells into these tissues and expose them to viral agents to watch how cells interact. The team will include age-related molecular features like changes in gene splicing and epigenetic marks to mirror differences seen in older versus younger lungs. The aim is to make a model that is more predictive than simple cell cultures or animal tests for human lung immunity.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could speed up development of better-targeted therapies, improve vaccine testing, and reduce surprises when treatments move to people with viral lung infections.
How similar studies have gone: Related lung organoid and lung-on-chip models have produced useful insights, but fully ventilated, vascularized 3D bioprinted human airway models are newer and less tested.
Where this research is happening
-
Jackson Laboratory
Bar Harbor, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Williams, Adam — Jackson Laboratory
- Study coordinator: Williams, Adam
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.