Lung Research Bioreactor with Aerosolized Agent Delivery to Airways

Project Summary Development of an advanced research bioreactor for regenerating lung tissue including complete human size lungs is proposed This reactor will be capable of decellularizing a human size lung and using the resulting scaffold to bioengineer an autologous lung through recellularization This requires efficient means to deposit cells and biologics on the airway walls while maintaining the gas liquid interface and the breathing action Also it is desirable to operate the reactor in a closed chamber and automate the process while closely monitoring the critical process parameters Our proposed approach is to adapt a proprietary spraying catheter technology to the lung bioreactor and leverage the applicant s expertise in automation and control to develop the advanced bioreactor system The proposed airway sprayer will be capable of accessing the trachea and bronchi of the lung scaffold and safely deposit liquids containing cells and biologics on the airway walls Airway sprayer will generate liquid aerosols that will be transported deep in the lungs with the aid of a ventilator which will maintain the breathing action during and after the agent delivery The base technology is already proven to gently aerosolize cells and large molecules In this Phase I SBIR project we propose to further develop airway sprayer technology and validate it in an existing bioreactor We propose to optimize the device for the best cell delivery outcomes and incorporate an angulation mechanism to access the bronchi Further we plan to include an aspiration channel in the catheter device to sample cell secretions for efficient monitoring and control of the recellularization process Successful completion of this work would establish the feasibility of the novel airway recellularization technique In Phase II this device will be incorporated in a fully automated lung research bioreactor This advanced bioreactor system will be commercialized and made available to the research community PROJECT NARRATIVE The proposed lung research bioreactor will provide the researchers a powerful tool to experiment with the means to bioengineer autologous lungs and lung tissue which would be well tolerated by the recipient and would be available as needed The proposed research would help improve the outcome of lung transplant and lung reconstruction surgeries Hence this project is very relevant to public health