Kilachand Fund Awards Go to Crystal Rib Cage and Brain Connection Projects

When infection or disease strikes the lung—cancer, pneumonia, COVID-19—it’s tough for researchers to see what’s going on inside the organ. Even if they simulate in a lab the disease in a lung, they can’t recreate the forces the rib cage places on it without blocking their view of what’s happening. That’s about to change.

A crystal rib cage, developed by a Boston University engineer—and being refined in collaboration with a BU medical researcher specializing in pneumonia—will enable scientists to visualize in real time how the lung develops immunity against infection. Read more at The Brink.