Donald Ingber, MD, PhD
Animated Illustration: The Developing Lung
Organ development in the embryo requires precise coordination and timing of cell growth in three-dimensional space to produce the correct anatomic form and shape. Dr. Ingber and colleagues have demonstrated that the process of budding and branching in the developing lung is driven by mechanical forces generated within individual cells.
This illustration show the theoretical mechanical strain distributions within the basement membrane of the developing lung epithelium at different times during branching morphogenesis. The smaller image is a series of photomicrographs of individual buds that show similar morphogenetic changes during mouse lung development.
