Researchers Grow Human Lungs in Lab

For the first time

Human lungs have been grown in a lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. The organs were grown in a fish tank using cells from dead children. Stripping one lung down to its basics—collagen and elastin—the researchers then harvested cells from the other lung.

The combination was placed in a chamber filled with nutritious liquid. After four weeks, the team extracted a complete human lung. The team repeated the procedure with a second set of lungs.