News Brief
June 22, 2017 
RICHLAND, Wash. - For most prematurely born infants, it's not their tiny size itself that makes life a struggle. Rather, it's the development of their lungs that spells the difference between life and death.
In a bid to learn more about the lungs to help such children, scientists around the nation are working together to develop a molecular atlas of the developing human lung during late pregnancy and early childhood. As part of the LungMAP plan, scientists at the D.O.E.'s Pacific Northwest National Lab have gotten one of the most in-depth looks ever at the developing lung, characterizing hundreds of lipids and thousands of proteins from samples as small as just 4,000 cells.
The PNNL team, directed by Charles Ansong, published 2 papers in Scientific Reports:
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Geremy Clair and Paul Piehowski looked at how proteins change during normal lung development in the alveoli, the tiny sacs where the action happens, with oxygen entering and carbon dioxide exiting the body. The team characterized and tracked changes in in excess of 3,400 proteins from just 4,000 cells in the alveoli, which produce surfactant, a vital substance in the lungs and one that often does not work properly in prematurely born infants.
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Sydney E. Dautel and Jennifer Kyle studied how lipids change in the maturing lung after birth. Lipids are an important element in surfactant and they play a number of roles, including preventing lung collapse. The scientists' study is one of the most in-depth looks ever at the lipids in the lung and analyzed which lipids are involved in normal lung development.
"We want to develop the equivalent of an identity card for the biomolecules in the lung - allowing us to know where and when a particular biomolecule is present to provide an indication of what it's doing," said Ansong.
"Lung immaturity is a leading cause of death and sickness in infants born prematurely. If we can understand how the lung normally develops, perhaps we can use that information to jump-start stalled development in these children," he added.
To do the study, the team used advanced mass spectrometry tools at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab, a D.O.E. Office of Science user facility located at PNNL.
More information about the 2 recent studies is accessible in this article.
Tags: Fundamental Science, EMSL, Biology, Health Science, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab, is a D.O.E. Office of Science User Facility. Located at Pacific Northwest National Lab in Richland, Wash., EMSL offers an open, collaborative environment for scientific discovery to researchers around the world. Its integrated computational and experimental resources enable researchers to realize important scientific insights and create new technologies. Follow EMSL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Lab address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. Founded in 1965, PNNL employs 4,400 staff and has an yearly budget of nearly $1 billion. It is managed by Battelle for the D.O.E.'s Office of Science. As the single biggest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information on PNNL, visit the PNNL News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
