"Engineering cartilage in microgravity could change tissue repair approaches."
Space Station Study Aims to Revolutionize Cartilage Repair with Cell Preservation Technology
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, in collaboration with NASA, are leveraging Parse Biosciences' Evercode Cell Fixation to preserve samples aboard the International Space Station. This work is part of an NSF-funded study on cartilage tissue engineering in microgravity, led by Dr. Wendy Brown and Dr. Kyriacos Athanasiou.
The Problem: Cartilage injury affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide, and effective treatments remain a major medical challenge.
The Approach
The team's methodology is a multi-step process designed to create functional cartilage in orbit:
- Cell Rejuvenation: First, researchers rejuvenate highly expanded chondrocytes to restore their ability to produce cartilage (chondrogenic gene expression).
- Scaffold-Free Assembly: The cells self-assemble into neocartilage without a scaffold.
- Mechanical Maturation: The tissue is matured under mechanical tension.
- Orbital Execution: This entire process occurs in microgravity using flight-certified hardware from BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
- Preservation & Analysis: Samples are preserved at multiple timepoints—from early differentiation to nearly 30 days of culture—using Parse Biosciences' Evercode Cell Fixation. They are then returned to Earth for single-cell RNA sequencing.
Key Perspectives
Dr. Rachel Nordberg highlighted the technical necessity: "The ability to study cell rejuvenation in microgravity at the single cell level requires effective preservation with long storage and a species-agnostic platform compatible with our minipig animal model."
Dr. Wendy Brown emphasized the flexibility required for spaceflight: "Parse offers the flexibility needed to study minipig cells, collect samples at multiple timepoints, and handle spaceflight operations unpredictability."
Charlie Roco, Co-founder and CTO at Parse Biosciences, praised the team's ambition, noting that engineering cartilage in microgravity could fundamentally change tissue repair approaches and lauded the scientific rigor of the project.
About Parse Biosciences
Parse Biosciences, now a QIAGEN company, provides single-cell sequencing solutions enabling research in cancer treatment, tissue repair, stem cell therapy, and other areas.