Airway muscle-on-a-chip mimics asthma

New drugs are urgently needed to treat asthma. Hope may be on the horizon thanks to a team that has developed a human airway muscle-on-a-chip that accurately mimics the way smooth muscle contracts in the human airway, under normal circumstances and when exposed to asthma triggers. It also offers a window into the cellular and even subcellular responses within the tissue during an asthmatic event, researchers say.