Dr. Joan Nichols's team at University of Texas Medical Branch has a mission - nobody's done it before, but they see no reason we shouldn't be trying to do it now: Bioengineering lungs from natural scaffolds. Joan's team recently completed a pilot study that successfully implanted bioengineered, lab-grown lungs into pigs, marking a huge milestone in the progression toward a future where transplant patients can receive organs specifically bioengineered and grown in a lab to be compatible with their bodies.