Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the University of Toronto have developed and validated a portable model that helps trainees perfect complex vascular surgery and airway anastomosis techniques. The model is inexpensive and is the first to simulate tracheal anastomosis.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers developed a method for studying the topography of pleural epithelial structure, enabled by en face harvest and machine learning. They used its geometry to map regional differences in mechanical stress, providing key insight into normal lung function and parenchymal lung disease.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers are the first to characterize Plpp6, a mouse homolog of PLPP6, as a polyisoprenyl diphosphate phosphatase that’s activated in dendritic cells after airway exposure to an aeroallergen. They suggest PLPP6 is likely a targetable regulatory checkpoint for allergic inflammation.

Brigham researchers previously reported that first-degree relatives of patients with pulmonary fibrosis have high rates of interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA). Their two-year follow-up indicates radiologic progression of ILA was common in relatives and may be associated with accelerated loss of lung function.