Engineering What It Means to Breathe: CU Denver’s Living Lung Model Is Changing the Future of Care

What if we could test treatments on a living system that actually behaves like your lungs, before a patient ever receives them?

At the University of Colorado Denver’s College of Engineering, Design and Computing (CEDC), that question is no longer theoretical. In the lab of biomedical engineering associate professor Chelsea Magin, researchers are building something remarkable: a lab-grown lung model that is redefining how we understand, study, and ultimately treat complex lung diseases.

A Lung Model That Acts Like the Real Thing

Traditional lab models fall short. Cells grown on flat, rigid surfaces can’t replicate the dynamic, three-dimensional environment of human tissue. Animal models, while useful, often fail to predict how treatments will perform in people. The result? Nearly 90% of promising drugs never make it from lab bench to patient bedside.

Magin’s team is closing that gap.

By combining donor lung tissue with engineered hydrogel materials, they’ve created a model that physically and biologically behaves like a human lung. Soft and elastic when healthy, stiffened under disease conditions. Researchers can “disease” the model and test therapies in a system that mirrors real human response.

This isn’t just better science. It’s smarter, more human-centered engineering. The team is already uncovering critical differences in how lung diseases affect individuals at the cellular level, opening the door to treatments tailored to each patient. It’s a major step toward a future where medicine isn’t one-size-fits-all, but designed with each person in mind.

For Magin, the work is deeply personal.

“I lived with undiagnosed asthma for 40 years,” she said. “I know what it’s like to not be able to breathe. That drives this work.”

Where Future Engineers Become Innovators

Step inside the Magin Lab, and you’ll find more than cutting-edge research, you’ll find the next generation of innovators.

This all-female team of students and scientists from CU Denver and the CU Anschutz Medical Campus is tackling big problems together, gaining hands-on experience that crosses disciplines and redefines what it means to work in healthcare.

PhD student Haley Noelle Bergman didn’t start her journey in a lab. As an EMT during the COVID-19 pandemic, she saw firsthand the limitations of reactive care and realized she wanted to be part of building solutions upstream.

“I don’t want to just practice medicine,” she says. “I want to innovate medicine.”

Now, Bergman studies idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis using the lung model, working alongside peers like Mikala Mueller while preparing for medical school. Her experience reflects a broader truth about the future of healthcare:

“Engineering, science, and medicine are all intertwined,” she said. “Complex diseases won’t be solved by one field. This kind of collaboration is essential.”

That interdisciplinary mindset is core to the CEDC experience, where students don’t just learn theory, they apply it to challenges with real world impact. And that same spirit drives the entire lab. From students like Mikala Mueller to lab manager Rachel Blomberg, every member of the team is contributing to research that could transform how chronic lung diseases are treated.

“It’s really hard to study complex chronic diseases,” says Rachel Blomberg. “What we are doing in the Magin Lab will help us improve the lives of people suffering from chronic lung disease.”

Celebrating Research That Changes Lives

During Research Week, CU Denver is celebrating discovery by we’re showcasing what it means to be at the forefront of innovation in Colorado and beyond.

This is a place where students don’t wait until graduate school to make an impact. They step into labs early, work alongside leading faculty, and contribute to research that is actively reshaping healthcare, technology, and our understanding of the world. From breakthrough biomedical models like the work happening in the Magin Lab to developing a technology capable of bringing high-energy experiments down to the size of a microchip, CU Denver offers access to a level of hands-on, real-world research that posies it’s graduates to make a difference in the world.

If you’re looking for a place where you can do more than study—where you can contribute, innovate, and build the future— The College of Engineering, Design, and Computing is the place.

Ready to engineer solutions that change lives?
Explore biomedical engineering at CU Denver and join a community where research is transforming the future of healthcare.