Abstract

Liver Tissue Engineering in Space

Tammy Chang, , University of California

End-stage liver disease is a leading cause of death by disease in the United States, and the only current treatment is liver transplantation. The critical shortage of donor organs limits the effectiveness of liver transplantation as a treatment modality and has spurred intense research to develop alternative approaches, including differentiating hepatocytes from human stem cells as sources for functional tissue replacement therapy.  In this talk, the speaker will present findings from her laboratory that demonstrate microgravity-enabled self-assembly of highly functional liver organoids derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells, and discuss the potential for large-scale high-throughput biomanufacturing of organoids and larger tissue constructs in low Earth orbit.