Tiny models of beating human heart tissue and miniature brains have reached the International Space Station, where Mount Sinai researchers hope to learn how spaceflight affects human cells and processes linked to aging.
The experiments launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard SpaceX‘s CRS-35 cargo mission on Oct. 13. NASA confirmed the spacecraft docked on Oct. 15. The cargo includes two chips carrying up to 16 beating cardiovascular organoids and separate peppercorn-sized brain tissue models known as miBrain. Both are grown from human cells and reproduce selected features of organs.
Scientists will examine how the conditions of spaceflight, including microgravity and increased radiation exposure, affect these tissues. Spaceflight can cause changes resembling some effects of aging, particularly in the cardiovascular system.
“Six months in space … is equivalent to about 10 to 20 years of aging on Earth,” Kevin Costa, an associate professor of surgery at Mount Sinai, told ABC News.
The comparison is his characterization of accelerated aging-related changes, rather than a measured result from this mission or a measure of whole-body aging.
The heart models are housed in Space Tango’s automated CubeLab system, designed to apply daily electrical signals, test pressure responses, capture microscopic images and collect fluid samples. Mount Sinai previously sent individual heart muscle cells to the station in 2023.
The separate brain investigation, led by Mount Sinai researcher Joel Blanchard, aims to examine brain cell activity, identify signs of injury and assess whether genetic risk factors affect responses to spaceflight.
Blanchard told ABC News the research could also support work on Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers hope findings from both experiments will help protect astronauts on future missions and inform studies of age-related disease on Earth. No treatment has been demonstrated.
