Biotechnology

Why Biotechnology?

NASA's biotechnology activities are truly unique: investigators around the world have the opportunity to study cells and tissues in an environment that cannot be completely duplicated on Earth.

NASA's ultimate goal is keeping astronauts healthy, safe, and productive during and after space flight.  Like terrestrial biomedicine, though, analysis of how cells respond to microgravity means better understanding of underlying mechanisms.  The forces governing cell and tissue function are normally hidden by the effects of gravity.

In turn, understanding of these mechanisms can inform new and more effective treatments for patients here on Earth.  Furthermore, the near-weightlessness of microgravity allows investigators to culture and manipulate cell structures that would be crushed by their own mass-as small as that may be-in Earth's gravity.

Biotechnology impacts human space flight and exploration in many areas:

• Basic human physiology;
• Plant life used as oxygen or food source;
• Bioregenerative microbes for advanced life support;
• Normal flora; and
• Environmental monitoring in the spacecraft.

Biotechnology also impacts applied science and life on Earth in many areas:

• Tissue engineering;
• Vaccine and drug development;
• Models of human disease; and
• Biosensors.

Origins of Space Cellular Biology

While the earliest investigators and students of space cell biology lacked the elegant tools and opportunities available today, they did focus on the role of gravity in cell development.  These studies were the precursor for modern-day cell culture and tissue engineering experiments performed by BSO investigators.

Time Frame	Achievement
1806	Water-wheel studies by Knight distinguished between the effects of light and gravity on plant growth
1883	Oocyte studies by Pfluger showed that inversion of cells results in abnormal development
1960s	Satellite flights included bacterial, plant, and animal cells, but experiments were plagued by poor controls
1973-1974	Skylab studies focused on shape and metabolic changes to human red blood cells and performance of immune cells in vitro
1974-1995	Diverse cell-based experiments in microgravity established an evidence-based, integrated approach

Precursors to the BSO provided the scientific community with awareness, facilities, knowledge base, and technology.  NASA's activities in cellular biotechnology have continued to gain momentum over almost 20 years

Time Frame	Achievement
1974	Space Bio-Product Group recommends microgravity cell culture
1980	Early space bioreactor concepts in work
1988	First proposal for a Space Station facility to accommodate cell culture
1991	Bioreactor licensed to Synthecon, Inc.
1994	First workshop on space cell culture (Society of In Vitro Biology)
1998	BSO investigator group exceeds 75 scientists
2001	BSO sponsors the first joint investigators group meeting for both life and microgravity sciences
2002	BSO investigators number more than 55; community of bioreactor users exceeds 200, with more than 5,000 bioreactors available worldwide

Today, the BSO contributes its expertise in cell-based research to the larger community of first-class space investigators.  With cell-based tools and approaches, we help to answer long-standing questions in biomedical research.  We work closely with other areas of NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Sciences Research (OBPR), the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, Ames Research Center's Fundamental Space Biology, and Marshall Space Flight Center's Microgravity Research Program Office.

Learn More

+ OBPR Physical Sciences Research Division
+ Fundamental Space Biology
+ National Space Biomedical Research Institute

Current Research Questions

BSO research and activities center around answering several research questions:

• What is the adaptive responses of cells to microgravity and to the space environment?
• What phenotypic and genotypic changes induced by microgravity, space, and planetary environments?
• Does the space environment invoke a selective pressure on replicating cells?
• What biomedical implications emerge from low gravity cell biology?
• What biomedical applications are provided by the unique low gravity environments in space?

BSO research and development also contributes to risks and questions found in the Bioastronautics Roadmap.  The Bioastronautics Roadmap identifies, defines, and prioritizes the most important risks of human space flight and currently includes over 350 risks.  While the Bioastronautics Roadmap does not call out specific biotechnology risks for human space flight, it does acknowledge the important role of biotechnology, cell biology, and tissue engineering in many risk areas:

• Bone loss
• Environmental health
• Immunology, infection and hematology
• Muscle alterations and atrophy
• Radiation effects
• Multi-system alterations

Learn more about the Bioastronautics Roadmap

Bioreactor

The flagship technology of BSO is the NASA rotating bioreactor, a powerful tool for cell culture.  It has opened new vistas in tissue engineering, disease modeling, and space cell biology.  See the BSO Showcase for more information.  New applications and uses for the bioreactor are still emerging today.