Mount Sinai Launches Bioengineered Brain and Heart Models Into Space

Mount Sinai researchers are sending bioengineered human brain and cardiovascular tissue models into space for the first time today, as part of the SpaceX CRS-35 mission, to study brain activity, cardiovascular function, and accelerated aging in orbit. Two investigations will send miniature organ-like systems known as organoids and organ-chips to the International Space Station to study the effects of microgravity and increased radiation on human health. The Mount Sinai team includes researchers from the Departments of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Neuroscience, and Surgery, as well as the Cardiovascular Research Institute.

Spaceflight subjects astronauts to both microgravity and increased radiation exposure, and can produce biological changes linked to accelerated aging. Across several missions, researchers will study how human brain tissue responds to spaceflight and why those responses may differ among astronauts. The researchers will also use these missions to study how brain tissue from the Mount Sinai model, called miBrain, changes with age and to determine how common genetic risk factors for neurodegeneration, such as APOE4, influence the aging process for people on Earth.

One Mount Sinai project developed the miBrain model from patient-derived stem cells. It contains all the brain's major cell types, including neurons, astrocytes, and immune cells, as well as vasculature, and reproduces key features of human brain tissue. In collaboration with NASA and the aerospace company Space Tango, Mount Sinai is conducting a series of spaceflights to validate the miBrain model and assess brain cell signaling and function in space.

Our research could establish miBrain as a practical tool for assessing neurological risk before and during spaceflight. By testing how human brain tissue responds to the space environment, we aim to identify biomarkers of injury, determine how genetic risk factors alter susceptibility, and evaluate countermeasures that protect brain health."

Joel W. Blanchard, PhD, Study Project Leader and Associate Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

In a second Mount Sinai project, beating cardiovascular organoids grown from healthy human stem cells in a microfluidic chip called the µCVchip will also launch into space during the mission to better understand how microgravity and other features of space travel affect cardiac and vascular function. The team previously sent stem cell-derived cardiac muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, into space in 2023 on NASA's 29th SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services mission to assess cell viability. The current CRS-35 mission will send two µCVchips containing up to 16 beating cardiovascular organoids within Space Tango's automated CubeLab system. The system will perform daily electrical pacing, pressure testing, microscopic imaging, and fluid sample collection to study how human heart and blood vessel tissues respond to extended microgravity exposure.

Spaceflight can cause changes in the cardiovascular system that resemble some effects of aging. Collaborators Kevin D. Costa, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery, and David Sachs, PhD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, say the findings could help identify new ways to protect astronauts' heart health and could inform new therapies for cardiovascular disease in aging populations on Earth.

"We are incredibly proud that these spaceflight missions have chosen to propel stem cell-derived organoids from the Blanchard, Sachs, and Costa laboratories to the International Space Station," said Sarah E. Millar, PhD, Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs and Chair of the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "These projects highlight Mount Sinai's growing work in space science and innovation. The results from these experiments will help us better understand the impacts of space travel on brain and heart health, refine how we prepare astronauts for spaceflight, and, potentially, improve care and develop interventions for aging populations across the Mount Sinai Health System and surrounding communities."

"We are excited about the work from the Department of Surgery's Sachs/Costa Laboratory exploring organoid physiology in space," said Michael L. Marin, MD, Chair of the Department of Surgery, Mount Sinai Health System. "The data expected from this study will deepen our understanding of how specific tissues respond to altered gravitational forces."