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December 27, 2012

Mammal Lung in 3-D

This detailed 3-D mammal lung was created by a research team led by Eric Hoffman, a professor in the Departments of Radiology, Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Iowa (UI). This research is an extension of the work that Ewald Weibel (also a co-author) from the University of Bern in Switzerland began in the early 1960s. The image shows three pulmonary acini in a mouse lung and the terminal air spaces of the lung, where gas exchange takes place. Visualizations such as this seek to solve some of the remaining mysteries of lung function.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation. To learn more, see the UI news story A Mammal Lung, in 3-D. (Date of Image: July 2008)

Credit: Dr. Dragos M. Vasilescu, University of Iowa (dragos.vasilescu@hli.ubc.ca); Dr. Eric A. Hoffman, University of Iowa (eric-hoffman@uiowa.edu); Dr. Ewald Weibel, University of Bern (weibel@ana.unibe.ch)


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