Human tissue samples from Oxford’s Space Innovation Lab (SIL) are in orbit on the International Space Station, in the hope they reveal why the ageing process speeds up in space, Reuters reports.
The experiment is designed to see if microgravity offers researchers to ability to accelerate the ageing process in space while observing identical cells on Earth.
“We work within the frontier between space and biology,” Dr. Ghada Alsaleh, lead researcher at Oxford’s Space Innovation Lab, told Reuters.
“We would be able, by comparing and analyzing the data coming from these two different organoid, in the International Space Station and also on Earth, to be able to study the process of ageing and the impact of the microgravity and the space in general on the ageing process,” she said.
Their sample organoids – miniaturized and simplified version of organs produced in vitro – are housed in a self contained laboratory in a cube, just a few centimetres in length, that plugs directly into the ISS and gives realtime data and control back to Oxford.
“We don’t need the involvement of the astronauts,” Alsaleh said. “It’s all automatically from our laboratory on Earth.”
Decades of space travel have revealed how microgravity affects the human body including diminishing bone density and weakening the immune system.
“I really focus to help people on Earth, but at the same time it would definitely help astronauts not to age faster and maybe to treat all these disorders that they have during their missions,” Alsaleh said.
Her goal is to find ways to slow down age-related health issues, such as osteoporosis and immune system decline, whether you’re on Earth or up in Space.
Plans for missions to Mars and even beyond mean finding a solution to the problem is now a priority.
