SEATTLE — From Seattle to the International Space Station, the Allen Institute based here in the Pacific Northwest is headed into orbit. The Institute is not sendinginto space, but human cells that are playing a part in research that could ultimately save lives.
On Earth, the production of large quantities of stem cells has been challenging because two-dimensional culture conditions don’t exactly work like the human body. Scientists have learned that microgravity conditions on the ISS create three-dimensional cell growth that resembles how cells grow in the human body. This makes microgravity an ideal platform to produce stem cells to The lab says understanding microgravity’s impact on stem cells and stem cell-based products could be groundbreaking.
“Previous stem cell experiments on the space station have actually shown that there can be an improvement in how these cells divide in microgravity, as well as a change in their pluripotency, or their ability to be a stem cell,” he said. “If we can grow cells two- or three-fold better than what we can do on the ground, that’s really exciting, not just for basic science for using these stem cells, but also for clinical applications.