Wall Street Journal Highlights Research Reporting on New Womb-like Device
Published on in CHOP News
In the latest effort to improve care for extremely premature newborns, researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have developed a womb-like device that’s intended to mimic the prenatal fluid-filled environment needed to develop premature newborn organs.
On April 25, study leader Alan W. Flake, MD, a Pediatric and Fetal Surgeon and Director of the Center for Fetal Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues reported on their findings in Nature Communications.
The research team tested and monitored effects on fetal lambs, in which prenatal lung development is very similar to that occurring in humans, and were able to keep these premature lambs alive for longer and with better health outcomes than in previous devices.
