Organ Chips in Space
More than half of the Apollo astronauts have experienced bacterial or viral infections as a consequence of their missions, and the reasons for that are unclear. But to study the problem further researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created organ-on-a-chip devices to mimic lung and bone marrow tissue, which already have gone into space. “The lung chip is made of a polymer, and a permeable membrane is the platform for the human cells. For the lung-on-a-chip, one side of the membrane is coated with lung cells, to process the air, and capillary cells on the other, to provide the blood flow. The membrane is stretched and released to provide the bellows-like effect of real lungs.” Whatever are the mysteries of cell growth in microgravity, the chips are in play. MORE
Image Credit: Penn Today