The 2026 American Thoracic society annual meeting included an educational event to showcase and teach investigators about Precision-Cut Lung Slices (PCLS). I had the privilege of chairing this event along with Dr Enid Neptune and Dr Kambez Benam.
The workshop was proposed by Professors Melanie Koenigshoff and Mareike Lehmann, both leaders in utilising PCLS for lung research. This followed on from a previous workshop held in 2023, which led to the publication of a workshop report on the emerging use of PCLS as tools for preclinical and translational lung research ( doi: 10.1165/rcmb.2024-0479ST).
This year’s practical workshop included a demonstration by the Chief Scientific Officer of Precisionary Instruments (Abby Chu) of how PCLS are generated using a tissue slicer. The remainder of the workshop consisted of talks by several researchers that are utilising PCLS in a variety of ways including live imaging of cell biology (Jennifer Sucre), investigating mechanobiology with PCLS (Janette Burgess) and transcriptomics technologies with PCLS (Nicholas Banovich).
The workshop included lots of discussion and highlighted the rapidly expanding use and breadth of research utilising human PCLS. For anyone wanting to find out more information about using PCLS for their research, I recommend this webinar series Tissue Slicing Webinars | Precisionary Instruments.
