Monitoring Real-Time Biomechanics in a Muscle-on-Chip on SpaceX-25
Siobhan Malany,
Associate Professor,
University of Florida, Founder of Micro-gRx
Through the Tissue Chips in Space program funded by the National Institutes of Health and NASA, we seek to leverage the unique environment of microgravity on the ISS to correlate changes in human skeletal muscle biology, particularly in genomics and biomechanics, with accelerated muscle dysfunction. Muscle degradation leads to a dramatic decline in mobility in an increasing aging population, yet age-related muscle atrophy or sarcopenia remains without effective therapeutic options, largely because molecular changes accumulate over decades. 3D Tissue chips have the potential to advance screening of drugs to counteract pathologies in vitro with clinically relevant physiology and they are adaptable for use in autonomous laboratories for space flight. In this work, we describe the characterization and advancements made in the development of a human muscle-on-chip that enables functional monitoring of donor-derived myobundles with electrical stimulation with the main goals to identify effective exercise mimicking regimes, evaluate therapeutic compounds and dietary supplements to benefit muscle health and establish a proof-of-concept technology platform in Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) for therapeutic development to treat the elderly, the athlete and the astronaut.
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