{"id":1651,"date":"2017-12-20T09:20:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T14:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ufluidix.com\/circlesecond\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2019-10-09T14:56:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T18:56:17","slug":"we-have-liftoff-organs-on-chips-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ufluidix.com\/circle\/we-have-liftoff-organs-on-chips-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"We Have Liftoff: Organs-on-Chips in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

When British neuroscientists began developing brain organoids to study autism and schizophrenia some years ago, their colleague Dr. Martin Coath, of the University of Plymouth, publicly<\/a> stated that they were fueling a crisis: \u201cA human brain that was ‘fully working’ would be conscious, have hopes, dreams, feel pain, and would ask questions about what we were doing to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fears akin to Coath\u2019s have trended ever since Mary Shelley wrote \u201cFrankenstein\u201d in 1818. While it is unlikely that organoids will be asking what we\u2019re doing to them anytime soon, it is likely that they will be doing some space traveling.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), in collaboration with the U.S. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), plan to study organs-on-chips<\/a>\u00a0onboard the International Space Station-National Laboratory (ISS-NL). Data from this effort will contribute to research<\/a> about microphysiological systems technologies.<\/p>\n

Why in space? Because of microgravity.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysiological changes, such as aging, tend to be more dramatic under microgravity, and can provide insights that can translate to identifying novel targets for drug discovery and development, and more effective treatments here on Earth,\u201d said Dr. Danilo A. Tagle, NCATS associate director for special initiatives. On\u00a0Earth, gravity forces cells to grow in somewhat flat layers in a dish. Within microgravity, cells are free to grow more smoothly into 3-D forms, as structures that better imitate human organs.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A photo was\u00a0taken from the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA<\/p><\/div>\n

Organs-on-chips have up to now replicated the biochemical environment for tissues \u2014 on Earth. Advancing this research on the space station has the potential to accelerate the ways organs-on-chips can be more useful for healing, with the discovery of molecular mechanisms that fuel disease. \u201cThis collaboration will allow us to better understand disease processes in a way we never could before<\/em>, and improve human health by deploying tissue chips technology at the ISS-NL,\u201d said Tagle.<\/p>\n

Organs-on-chips are one focus<\/a> of NCATS\u2019 effort to lasso the far reaches of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration drug approval process, which can metamorphose from good intentions into decades of fruitless, costly testing of toxic products. Given organs-on-chips\u2019 potential to be biological twins of human organs, to separate what\u2019s safe from what\u2019s toxic, and to accomplish that before patients become bankrupt, or die \u2014 of old age as much as of disease \u2014 any research, anyplace in the galaxy, seems welcome.<\/p>\n

NCATS was founded in 2012 to facilitate more cures delivered to more patients more quickly. Working without gravity supports the \u201cmore-quickly\u201d portion of that mission. CASIS, NCATS and NIBIB are aiming to support investigators with expertise in microfluidics<\/a>, materials science, microfabrication, stem cells and disease modeling.<\/p>\n

CASIS is the agency that manages research onboard the space station. CASIS Deputy Chief Scientist Dr. Michael Roberts said, \u201cThe ISS National Lab is proud to be another crucible of medical innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Situating a Frankenstein-fear-factor inside a \u201ccrucible\u201d is not likely to dilute the objections of organoid skeptics, but it cheers advocates. \u201cThis joint effort is an opportunity to further\u00a0develop and refine organ-on-a-chip platforms for research in space,\u201d in the opinion of Dr. Seila Selimovic, director of the\u00a0NIBIB program in Organs on a Chip. \u201cThe inclusion of bioengineering approaches in this program will\u00a0provide unique technologies for improving our understanding of human health and disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Automobile crash-test dummies, when they are propelled into a wall at high speed, help scientists to understand how that would injure a living passenger. Similarly, the value of organs-on-chips is that they safety-test medical treatments before they ever get near a human. Even before rocketing to space, microfluidics systems research has been providing scientists with improved precision; upgraded laboratory techniques to achieve specific cell architecture have been critical to organoid development.<\/p>\n

So it will be valuable to observe microfluidic systems in microgravity.<\/p>\n

\u201cA long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away . . .\u201d
\nNot quite. It\u2019s more like, \u201cSometime soon, in our own galaxy, microfluidic systems will reside on the space station.\u201d<\/p>\n

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