NG-18 Research: RedWire BioFabrication Facility

Space: is it the final frontier, or could it be the new frontier of regenerative medicine? Bioprinting human tissues for implantation in patients to treat injury or disease would be game-changing.

When Northrop Grumman’s 18th Commercial Resupply Services (NG-18) mission launches to the ISS, it will carry an upgraded version of Redwire Space’s BioFabrication Facility, or BFF, a 3D bioprinter capable of printing human tissue. The project, sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory, will pave the way for in-space bioprinting of tissues—and possibly even organs in the future—that could one day help patients back on Earth.