Brain Physiology in Microgravity Under Study on ISS
The Brain-Chip developed by Emulate has been sent to the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory (ISS National Lab) to study human brain physiology in microgravity.
"Understanding how the immune system interacts with organ biology in microgravity will be important for future research, and we are honored to be a part of this project.”
Daniel Levner, Chief Technology Officer of Emulate.
The research is part of the Tissue-Chips in Space initiative sponsored by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the International Space Station National Lab (ISS-NL). The ISS provides an environment where researchers can study human health in microgravity, allowing them to isolate the effects of gravity from other factors that can impact brain cell function.
The Emulate Brain-Chip is the most comprehensive in vitro model of the human neurovascular unit, including the blood-brain barrier (BBB), for preclinical research. It contains five cell types in a dynamic and tunable microenvironment, resulting in in vivo-like gene expression and phenotypic response. Each chip is about the size of a USB thumb drive and contains two fluidic channels separated by a porous membrane. The vascular channel is lined with brain microvascular endothelial cells, while the brain channel contains cortical neurons, astrocytes, pericytes, and microglia. This allows researchers to study BBB function, the ability of drugs to cross the BBB, and the complex cell-cell interactions involved in brain physiology, disease, and drug response.
All 12 chips will be situated in a shoebox-sized piece of instrumentation that was custom designed for spaceflight, which provides automated environmental control, perfusion, fluid sampling, dosing, and fixation as part of the experiment.
Emulate’s implementation partner, SpaceTango, has an agreement with NASA allowing them to manufacture and deploy commercial payloads to the space station for microgravity research and development. As such, SpaceTango has led the development of the instrumentation and is responsible for overseeing the logistics of sending the Brain-Chip to the ISS.
“By comparing the human Brain-Chip response to an inflammatory stimulus under reduced gravity conditions versus its response back on Earth, we will be able to investigate differences in cytokine production, BBB permeability, and morphology,” said Daniel Levner, Chief Technology Officer of Emulate. “Previous studies, such as NASA’s Functional Immune study, have shown changes in endothelial cell morphology in 2D cultures in space as well as many changes in astronaut immune function during spaceflight. Understanding how the immune system interacts with organ biology in microgravity will be important for future research, and we are honored to be a part of this project.”
(Source: Emulate news release. Image from file)