A happy Springtime welcome to the blog of the Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists! As you know we are constantly concerned with improving treatments and techniques for lung disease.

We dream of a day  when lung cancer will not claim the lives of our patients, friends, and loved ones. We prove this by bringing you the latest news in scientific research about your respiratory system.

That is why we want our readers to know that the American Lung Institute is conducting a “Call In Day,”April 13th, 2012. This is a dramatic, grassroots, national plan for all of us to influence Lung Cancer research legislation.

Lung Doctors in Florida, in Orlando, and physicians all over the world join with you in the battle for lung disease research. We want you to be aware that budgets devised by our law-makers directly affect research for lung cancer, the number-one killer cancer in America.

We urge readers to participate in this amazing and empowering event by clicking here. Ironically, the life saved by using a few moments now might be your own in the future.  With in the next two weeks, Florida legislation will be considering the fate of your tax dollars for lung cancer research.

The Florida Lung Doctors are pleased to recognize incredible results from recent studies at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC). In stunning research that required years of work, Dr. Darrell Kotten and his associated scientists have announced that they have created lung and thyroid progenitor cells in vitro. (In vitro means “in glass,” such as the in a test tube or in a petre dish as shown in the illustration below.)

Amazingly, the cells grown in the labs behave like those responsible for the growth of lung and thyroid cells. Below, The Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep center presents three milestones from their work, phrased in  basic language for speedy reading. For the details of the study, you can click here.

1.   This significant research was conducted by Darrell Kotton, MD, co-director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) at Boston University and BMC and Attending Physician in Pulmonary, Allergy and Sleep M edicine at BMC, led this study. First, the scientists identified the factors needed for stem cells to become lung progenitor cells.

2. They tagged these factors in the stem cells, in vitro. They used a with a fluorescent tag so they could identify the exact moment that “lung or thyroid cells were generated from ES cells in culture.”

3. The scientists placed the cells grown in vitro into a three dimensional model. According to April 7 issue of the research journal, “The Stem Cell Cell,” the healthy cells grew and multiplied, forming two types of lung cells that normally coat the air sacs of the lungs.

Both scientists and practicing physicians world-wide are applauding the promise of new gene and cellular treatments that will result from this successful series of experiments.

Our extreme in depth readers and health care professionals will appreciate a summary of the actual report and several associated articles available at this excellent source.  Research such as this could not have been imagined or implemented a few years ago, even in science fiction. Revisit our previous resources for other recent research information.