Welcome to the LBNL LungLab Tour

What is Lung Tour?

LungTour is a set of images of the lung made with the Scanning Electron Microscope and organized in hyperimage format to allow you to travel through and see in more and more detail the structure of the lung. You begin with a whole lung that has been opened to show the branching airway; you can zoom in to the surface of this airway at different positions along its length at higher and higher magnification.
This image set is an experiment in hyperimage databasing, where images are linked in a logical manner such that you can move through the set by clicking on part of the image that you would like to see in more detail. This brings you the next, higher magnification image in the series. At the current time, Lung Tour is a partial demonstration: there are only thirty or so images in the set so the hyperimage function will only work in one or a few areas of a given picture.

How to navigate the Lung Tour

Begin by clicking on START TOUR at the bottom of the screen. The first image is of one lobe of lung. Click anywhere on the image to rotate and tilt the same view (alternately you can click on the button at the lower right to see the next image in the series). Click again on the image to display the airway unit that branches across the screen and down. You can now choose to click at the bifurcation at the upper right and begin a series of images of the cells there, or click further down on the right to see the first alveoli as outpouchings of the airway and continue that series. If you click in an area that is not linked nothing will happen. We are working on displaying the areas that are linked but have not implemented that yet. If this nascent hyperimage format is frustrating you may navigate through the images by pressing the "Next Image" button at the lower right.

What is Lung Lab?

LungLab is the Lung Microscopy Group, Life Sciences Division and the National Center for Electron Microscopy of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California. We are a part of Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, Oakland, California.
We are carrying out a number of basic, clinical, instrumentation, and methodological experiments relevant to understanding the structure, function, diseases, and treatment of diseases of the lung. We are measuring the surface tension of the air-liquid interface along the airway to understand how humans can normally breathe so efficiently. We are studying surfactant to improve the treatment of premature babies whose lives are threatened by the inability of their immature lungs to reduce surface tension when they develop Respiratory Distress Syndrome. We are looking at the effects of smoke on the surface liquid and surface tension in the lung. We are developing new microscopical methods for studying the lung including the water and liquid that are part of the tissue. We are developing techniques of measuring lung (and other) structures in three dimensions that are quick, precise, and accurate. We are studying Cystic Fibrosis, the serious disorder of salt and liquid in the body and lung. For further information you may contact us at SJBastacky@LBL.gov.

Current members, associates, and participating organizations

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