UC San Diego

With the increasing global interest in space exploration and the permanent presence ofhumans in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), it is crucial to establish the impact of microgravity exposure on the human body, and specially, the central nervous system (CNS). In collaboration with Space Tango, the Muotri Lab is targeting the microgravity environment by sending cortical brain organoids for 30 day missions to the International Space Station. Brain organoids are tridimensional self-organized structures derived from induced pluripotent or embryonic stem cells that mimic the cellular diversity and the spatial architecture of the developing human brain. We foresee that studies using organoid models on Earth versus LEO will improve our understanding of brain biology and cell-to-cell interactions. This will allow us to assess the impact of the space environment on the human brain and ultimately alleviate the effects of long-term exposure to space in humans. This project requires designing an automated device (CubeLab) capable of replicating organoid culture on board of the ISS. Here, we perform several ground control experiments to define the baseline conditions of organoid growth and survival in order to simplify and improve the design of our CubeLab.