PFI-TT: Biomimetic Engineered Space Technology Platform

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) is to increase the consistency, reliability, and repeatability of in vitro and ex vivo cell and organ testing methods before sending experiments to the International Space Station. The technology seeks to simulate various partial gravity conditions, including low Earth orbit and Martian and lunar gravities.

The project provides a platform to study cells and organs in different gravitational conditions without significant expense. The proposed technology seeks to provide an environment to study how prolonged immobilization (pseudo-weightlessness) affects cells and musculoskeletal organs and may have impacts on individuals sent to space. The creation of knowledge in this area may benefit the drug development and rehabilitation efforts focused on revitalizing deteriorated tissues after prolonged immobilization.

The proposed project seeks to prototype a technology that can simulate partial gravity conditions while culturing three-dimensional (3D) tissues, tissue analogs, and ex vivo organs for the study of human diseases and physiology under relevant mechanical and chemical conditions. Currently, commercially-available partial gravity simulators culture two-dimensional (2D) cell monolayers.

This limits scientists' ability to study human diseases and physiology under simulated partial gravity environments. The team will conduct operational parameter-based and cellular-based functional tests on various culturing systems with different complexities under a number of partial gravity conditions. The proposed technology may advance regenerative medicine, regenerative rehabilitation, and mechanobiology fields by offering a versatile platform to study cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions within a three dimensional(3D) matrix.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.