The artificial lung facility at Brown: more than a dozen years with Pierre Galletti

Beginning in 1969, Pierre Galletti and his colleagues established a laboratory at Brown University, which, initially and for many years, was involved with artificial lungs. Various projects budded out of this, including the following: the establishment of standards for oxygenator performance, which anticipated Food and Drug Administration requirements; studies of thrombosis and other pathologies, which could be reduced by design changes; long-term, pumpless arterio-venous (A-V) bypass; early hybrid pancreas and other artificial organs; implantable lungs; and spin off companies. The current report outlines the history, philosophy, collaborations, and major results of the laboratory, as well as how the principal investigators simultaneously moved into research areas outside of artificial lungs in the late 1980s.