WASHINGTON — Redwire announced it successfully 3D-printed human tissue in microgravity, a step towards more ambitious biotech applications in space.
The corporate said Sept. 7 that a human knee meniscus, printed on its 3D BioFabrication Facility (BFF) on the International Space Station, was now within the lab on Earth after returning on the Crew Dragon spacecraft that brought Crew-6 back to Earth Sept. 4. The meniscus was printed on the station in July.
The experiment was performed with the Uniformed Services University, which is on the lookout for improved treatments for injuries like meniscus tears which are common amongst service members. For Redwire, the experiment was a option to exhibit the flexibility of the BFF to print tissues for broader applications.
“For us, it’s an awesome goal tissue to go after,” said Ken Savin, chief scientist at Redwire, in an interview. “It allows us to check out our ability to place cells into one of these system, to take a look at their viability and it’s, in a way, a jumping off point to other tissues that we’re going to we also investigate.”
One particular area of interest is with the ability to produce human tissues for pharmaceutical applications, like model development. “Having the ability to develop any variety of tissue that you simply want in space in the long run has distinct benefits,” he said. “It would lead us down the trail towards model development, tissue alternative therapy and, ultimately, organ alternative therapy as well.”
That bioprinting can’t be done easily on Earth due to gravity. “Generally you may have so as to add chemicals or some sort of structure or framework that means that you can print in that third dimension. Otherwise, all of it settles right into a puddle,” he explained. “By printing in space, things which are only barely more viscous than water will be printed into three dimensions.”
Redwire is planning one other experiment for the BFF set to launch in November on a cargo Dragon mission that may involve printing cardiac tissue. That can test how it could actually print more sophisticated tissues, he said, including the flexibility of the cells to operate in rhythm.
“It also results in something that we do consider ultimately is of real significance,” he added. “I feel heart tissue therapy is an enormous deal and one which we see value in delivering.”
Savin said Redwire is seeing growing interest in doing experiments using the BFF or other facilities on the space station from the pharmaceutical community. “What I’m beginning to see is that standard on a regular basis scientists in America are submitting experiments to be done in space,” he said, including scientists which have not traditionally done microgravity research. “We are able to speak about those opportunities and check out to make an experiment that may test out their hypothesis in space. It’s doable and it happens.”