Ken Chmiel (pronounced Shumel) is a Staff Research Associate at the University of California, Davis, with over 30 years of experience in mammalian cell culture. He first trained in the preparation of precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) at Harvard University in the lab of Dr. Xinbin Ai, in collaboration with Dr. Yan Bai. Since then, Ken has led the development of PCLS-based workflows at UC Davis’s Department of Internal Medicine.

Ken’s current work focuses on integrating nanotechnology and genetically encoded biosensors into mouse lung slices—building upon previous success in primary human cell cultures. His lab has also developed PCLS protocols for both human and non-human primate tissues. Within the Zeki Lab, Ken’s work emphasizes assessing smooth muscle contractility in PCLS models in response to drugs, contributing to therapeutic discovery and drug testing.

In this webinar, Ken will walk through foundational principles and advanced applications of precision-cut lung slice workflows, with a focus on smooth muscle function and viability assessment.

In this webinar, Ken will:

•Demonstrate basic mouse lung PCLS cutting procedures

•Describe best practices for culturing lung slices and assessing viability

•Highlight methods for measuring airway smooth muscle contractility in response to drug treatments

•Share practical insights and real-world troubleshooting from over a decade of working with PCLS