Human Tissue 3D printer headed to Space Station
WALLOPS ISLAND (VA) – Bioprinting human tissues for implantation in patients to treat injury or disease could be game-changing. However, it is difficult to print soft tissue on Earth due to gravity causing them to collapse under their own weight. This is why scaffolding is necessary to keep them upright. Researchers are now going to the International Space Station, (ISS) in an attempt to remove this obstacle.
When Northrop Grumman’s 18th Commercial Resupply Services (NG-18) mission launches to the ISS, it will carry an upgraded version of Redwire Space’s BioFabrication Facility (BFF), a 3D bioprinter capable of printing human tissue. The ISS National Laboratory sponsored this project. It will open the door to in-space bioprinting tissue and possibly organs, which could one day be used to aid patients back on Earth.
On a subsequent flight, the materials required to print using the BFF will be available. The first tissue that the bioprinter will produce, a human meniscus, is a protective piece cartilage between the bones of the knee.
The printed tissues could be implanted in patients, but they could also be used as models for drug development, opening up new avenues for the testing of therapeutics. “Using the BFF, we can create true tissue-like structures in a better way and larger than you can terrestrially,” said Rich Boling, a Redwire vice president. “We can also use the BFF to print organoids, which could be used to test drug efficacy and reduce the need for laboratory animals.”
The BFF uses a combination adult human cells and proteins to make human tissues. It dispenses bioinks through four print head, much like 3D plastic printing. The BFF was introduced to the ISS for the first time in 2019. This upgraded version provides better temperature control to maintain the optimal consistency of the bioinks for optimal printing. It also features new camera views that allow ground controllers to better control the prints.
Although researchers have been able to print rigid human tissues such as bone and cartilage with some success, printing soft tissues and blood vessels has proven more difficult. That’s due to a combination of Earth’s gravity and the low viscosity of the bioinks used, which require scaffolding for the printed tissues to hold their shape. In the absence gravity, scaffolding is not necessary for printed structures to remain in their correct form. The prints can be cured and transformed into tissues that could one-day be implanted into patients.
Redwire says the secret ingredient to their success is the BFF’s counterpart, the Advanced Space Experiment Processor (or ADSEP). This adjacent processing facility on the ISS is responsible to condition the cells after they have been printed inside the BFF.
The BFF/ADSEP system can also be used to stimulate the tissue with chemical and mechanical stimuli, and possibly even to vascularize it. The printed tissues can be used as models for drug discovery and testing of novel therapies. Even the possibility of a cure for organ shortage could be possible with printed tissues.
NG-18 is scheduled for launch on November 6th at 5:50 a.m. EST. More than 20 payloads sponsored by ISS National Lab will be included in the mission.
