Tissue Chips Will Soon Head to Space
Tissue chips, small chips containing human cells grown on an artificial scaffold to model the structure and function of human tissue, will soon head to the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station) National Lab. Though they may be small, tissue chips could have a huge impact on medicine—allowing scientists to better model diseases and more accurately screen potential new drugs.
In 2016, the ISS National Lab and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the National Institutes of Health, announced a four-year collaboration through which NCATS would provide up to $12 million in funding to support the use of tissue chipA tissue chip, or organ-on-a-chip or microphysiological system, is a small engineered device containing human cells and growth media to model the structure and function of human tissues and/or organs. Using tissue chips in microgravity, researchers can study the mechanisms behind disease and test new treatments for patients on Earth. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a multiyear partnership with the ISS National Laboratory® to fund tissue chip research on the space station. technology for translational research onboard the ISS National Lab to benefit human health on Earth. In June 2017, five initial projects were awarded grants through the NCATS Tissue Chips in Space initiative. The first of these investigations is planned to launch to the space station on SpaceX CRS-16, currently scheduled for early December, with the rest planned for launch early next year.
For the investigation launching on SpaceX-16, a research team from the University of California, San Francisco seeks to use tissue chip technology to examine the relationship between immune aging and healing outcomes. As people age, their immune response gradually becomes impaired. This process may be accelerated in microgravityThe condition of perceived weightlessness created when an object is in free fall, for example when an object is in orbital motion. Microgravity alters many observable phenomena within the physical and life sciences, allowing scientists to study things in ways not possible on Earth. The International Space Station provides access to a persistent microgravity environment., as exposure to spaceflight has been shown to lead to immune dysfunction. The research team will investigate the biology of aging by looking at immune function in microgravity and then again during the recovery of the cells after they return to Earth.
The ISS National Lab, NCATS, and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), also part of the National Institutes of Health, announced a second funding opportunity supporting tissue chip research in space in December 2017. The awardees of this second solicitation were recently announced.
Learn more about tissue chips in space in the NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration article “Small Tissue Chips in Space a Big Leap Forward for Research” and in the related links below!