The present invention provides a human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line derived from a patient derived xenograft. The novel human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells comprise human herpesvirus 4 and specific short tandem repeat loci. Also provided are cellular composition comprising the novel nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line described herein and the use of the novel nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line for detecting a potential therapeutic agent.

Hybrid suspension cultures supplementing soluble extracellular matrix (ECM) for growth of organoids is disclosed. Viable lung organoid from epithelial, endothelial, and fibroblast human stable cell lines in suspension culture are also disclosed.

Described are DNA molecules which can be transcribed into an mRNA harbouring novel UTR sequences combining the advantages of being extremely short and at the same time allowing for high translation efficiencies of RNA molecules containing them. Further, described are vectors comprising such a DNA molecule and to host cells comprising such a vector. Moreover, described are corresponding RNA molecules containing such UTRs. Further, described is a pharmaceutical composition comprising the described RNA molecule and optionally a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier as well as to the use of the described UTRs for translating a coding region of an RNA molecule into a polypeptide or a protein encoded by said coding region.

The present invention relates to methods for obtaining a substantially pure population of pluripotent stem cell-derived airway basal-like cells. It also relates to a method of obtaining an in vitro pluripotent stem cell-derived airway epithelium model, utilising the pluripotent stem cell-derived airway basal-like cells. The invention further relates to an in vitro airway epithelial model, or lung model, which can be used for disease modelling and/or drug screening and in particular to an in vitro model for SARS-CoV-2 infection and for screening for agents effective against infection with SARS-CoV-2 i.e. COVID-19 and methods of using the same.

The present disclosure provides a newly-identified transitional cell state in alveolar regeneration, models to ablate lung alveolar type-1 cells that leads to lung fibrosis and emphysema, a scalable, an ex vivo lung fibrosis model that uses co-cultured lung fibroblasts and pre-alveolar type-1 transitional cell state (PATS) for the use of disease modeling and drug screening, and methods of using same.

A method is disclosed for separating cells from a lung. Mechanical pressure can be used in one stage of the process to increase the yield of separated cells, including alveolar type II cells.

Fluidic devices are provided and/or configured to form and support, extractable in-situ-formed hydrogels or hydrogel membranes that reside in a hydrogel chamber formed above, and in direct fluid communication with, an underlying fluidic channel, in the absence of an intervening membrane. In some example embodiments, the integrated fluidic device may include a geometrical hydrogel retention structure that provides a restoring force to the hydrogel when fluidic pressure is applied to the hydrogel from the underlying fluidic channel, or a geometrical meniscus-pinning feature that resists flow of a hydrogel precursor solution out of the hydrogel chamber, facilitating the formation of a hydrogel membrane extending over the integrated fluidic channel. The hydrogel or hydrogel membrane may be seeded with cells by delivering a cell-containing liquid to the fluidic channel, optionally while contacting the hydrogel with media provided in a media reservoir residing above the hydrogel layer.

The present invention relates to a flatbed air-liquid interface exposure module for exposing a plurality of cells at an air-liquid interface to nanoparticles, the flatbed air-liquid interface exposure module comprising a moisturizing section, an exposure section, and an aerosol duct. Further provided are related systems and methods.

The invention disclosed herein generally relates to methods and systems for converting stem cells into specific tissue(s) or cells through directed differentiation. In particular, the invention disclosed herein relates to methods and systems for promoting functional basal-like cells from pluripotent stem cell-derived lung bud tip progenitor organoid tissue through activation of SMAD signaling via activation of TGFβ1 (and/or the TGFβ signaling pathway) and BMP4 (and/or the BMP signaling pathway).

The present invention relates to compositions comprising a decellularized tissue. The present invention also provides an engineered three dimensional lung tissue exhibiting characteristics of a natural lung tissue. The engineered tissue is useful for the study of lung developmental biology and pathology as well as drug discovery.