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NCATS looks to space to mimic aging, launches first experiment

December 7, 2018 1:20 AM UTC

A SpaceX flight scheduled for launch Dec. 5 is due to carry tissue-on-a-chip technology as part of the Tissue Chips In Space initiative, intended to harness microgravity to mimic and accelerate the human body's aging process. The flight is the first of three planned launches for the initiative, which is spearheaded by NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS); it will also carry the first U.K.-led experiment to occur in space.

As organ- or tissue-on-a-chip systems find their footing in drug discovery on Earth, a handful of research teams funded by NCATS, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory (ISS National Lab) are sending their chips to the ISS to study human aging...