Cell Culture System

BioCells are a family of BioServe-developed cell culture hardware roughly analogous in function to a typical cell culture flask or multi-well culture plate. BioCells have been developed to allow researchers to perform complex laboratory-fidelity cell culture on ISSInternational Space Station while meeting NASA’s strict guidelines for safety and biological containment. The family consists of units ranging from single well to 12-wells, single chamber or dual chamber (providing a porous membrane between the cell and medium chambers), and volumes from 75ml down to 2.3 ml per well. BioCells are compatible with the BioServe Microscopy Platform, the KERMIT fluorescence microscopy platform, and the 12-well is also compatible with the Nanoracks Plate Reader.

The BioCell has customizable membranes that can support cellular/organismal attachment, cell suspension, coupon or experiment-specific device integration, and gas exchange. Typical materials include Teflon FEP, polycarbonate, and polystyrene depending on experiment requirements. BioCells have septa or needless ports for inlet/outlet access. All BioCell components are readily autoclavable or able to be gamma irradiated to meet sterility requirements associated with cell culture. The BioCell family is compatible with temperature ranges from -95 °C (for cryogenic storage) to +43 °C. When operated inside the BioServe SABL, they can support a range of investigations that require precise temperature control and 5% CO2 environments.

The BioCell supports fluid injections, media exchanges, sample collection, and culture preservation/fixation. Currently, the most common method to operate the BioCell hardware is for the crew to perform the fluid exchanges manually. BioServe provides full support for all operations, including certifying and flying required accessory hardware and providing training to and real-time voice support for the astronauts. For some experiments, an automated fluid exchange mechanism has been developed and used for specific BioCell models. The BioCell hardware-line originated in 2006 with the CHab module flown on STS-116. The first contemporary BioCell design was flown in 2014 aboard SpX-3. Since then, the BioCell has become recognized as the gold-standard in ISS cell culture hardware and has supported numerous flight experiments in tandem with SABL and ACM.

Over the years, BioCells have been used for bacteria, yeast, invertebrate animals, suspension mammalian cell culture, spheroid/organoid mammalian cell culture, and complex tissues. BioCell models have also been fitted with custom material coupons to enable studies of biofilm formation on a number of different substrates. BioCells can be customized to meet science requirements.