The upcoming International Space Station mission is to grow mini-brains in which stem cells will be grown into tiny 3d models of the human brain.
Mission Spherical minibrains in International Space Station
A stem cell is set to be grown into a simplified spherical version of the human brain and will soon be launched into the international space station (ISS).
According to the statement of ISS national lab US government funded national laboratory, during the preparation, the cells were derived from adult human skin cells. These stem cells are known as pluripotent stem cells which can be made to transfer into any type of cell in the human body under the influence of various chemical cues.
The cells will be persuaded to form neurones once they are aboard ISS. These are the cells that send electric and chemical signals in the brain they also send microglia and astrocytes. There are two more cells in the brain responsible for multiple tasks and their main job is to defend the brain from infection and provide structural support to the brain.
These 3 cell types will assemble on their own or factually glom together into small spheres and are appropriately known as spheroids. That can be used to create a human brain disease model and to test drugs. Solar sail project is important because its success will reduce the cost and reliability on old traditional fuel tanks.
In the future, we might see approvals based on the no animal disease model and this statement is said by “Shane Hegarty, the chief scientific officer of Axonis Therapeutics, the biotech company behind the spheroids. He delivered the statement because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided that human data is preferable to animal data.
In the recent past FDA already declared not to use new drugs to be tested on animals because according to NASA under Earth’s gravity, it could be challenging for spheroids to grow in their desired 3D shape. So the team will be estimating how well micro brains can grow under the microgravity of the international space station (ISS).
The team will be testing gene therapy on 3d models in order to grow the spheroids. The specialty of therapy is it is designed to affect only neurons, not other cell types. It will be assessed by the team that travelling to neurons and depositing its payload is how perfect.
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