Based on our Organs-on-Chips technology, we have created a new platform that enables a real-time window into the inner workings of human biology and disease, offering researchers a technology designed to predict human response with greater precision and detail than today’s cell culture or animal-based experimental testing methods. Each of our Organ-Chips — such as the liver, brain, and intestine — is about the size of a AA battery and contains tiny hollow channels lined with tens of thousands of living human cells and tissues. Organ-Chips are living, micro-engineered environments that recreate the natural physiology and mechanical forces cells experience within the human body. Our team has recently embarked on the modification of our platform so that it can be used on the International Space Station to enable experiments for understanding the impact of microgravity and other space flight-imposed stressors on human physiology, disease pathogenesis, and human response to drugs. One focus area is the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain by preventing unwanted substances from entering the brain, but can be harmed during periods of inflammation. Our Brain-Chip — which includes neurons and specialized vascular cells that emulate the blood-brain barrier — will be used in experiments on the International Space Station. The aim of this project is to assess how space-related stressors affect the integrity of the blood-brain barrier and the function of neurons under healthy and inflamed states. Another focus area is the intestine, where we will use our Intestine-Chip to better understand the effect of microgravity on a bacterial pathogen’s ability to infect the intestine and the subsequent immune response.  Both studies are broadly intended to give a deeper understanding into the effect of microgravity on organ function, and more specifically probe how their immune response is suppressed in microgravity, which is an observation seen in many past space experiments.

Human emulation on the international space station: A platform for studying human biology in microgravity

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.