ELF joins new EU project: DiscovAIR

We have recently joined an exciting new European project called DiscovAIR. DiscovAIR aims to create a ‘lung atlas’. This will be a detailed computer image of a healthy lung. It will be very detailed and it will start with images of the cells that the lung is made of. It will then go on to show how the cells fit together to make-up the lungs. The model will be of a healthy lung but there will be options to look at lung diseases such as:

• asthma,
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and
• idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. 

This will allow scientists to easily see how the lung would react in different situations in a lot of detail. This means that they will be able to perform important research that will contribute to advances in medicine. They hope that this will help with healthy aging of the lung.

In this project, ELF will get input from patients about what they would like to see from the atlas and help to produce clear information that will be presented back to patients and the public.

We will be meeting with the rest of the DiscovAIR team in Estoril on the 10 March. Here we will be discussing the aims of DiscovAIR and working with various stakeholders (patients, scientists and healthcare professionals) to make sure that the project meets the needs of these groups.

We are looking forward to working more on this project and will provide regular updates on its progress.