UC Irvine sends cartilage study to the ISS
UC Irvine researchers are sending a cartilage tissue engineering study to the International Space Station to test how microgravity affects cartilage growth.
At the DELTAi Lab, the University of California, Irvine is working with NASA and Parse Biosciences on the project. The team will use single cell RNA sequencing after samples return to Earth.
Parse Biosciences announced the work on June 29, 2026. The study is part of a National Science Foundation-funded grant led by Dr. Wendy Brown and Dr. Kyriacos Athanasiou.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide live with cartilage injury, which can cause pain and disability. Researchers want implants that repair or regenerate damaged tissue without harming a donor site.
In the lab, gravity may work against cartilage formation. However, research in orbit suggests engineered tissues can come closer to natural tissue than samples grown on Earth.
Rachel Nordberg and BioServe device
First, the UC Irvine team rejuvenates highly expanded chondrocytes to restore chondrogenic gene expression and the cells’ ability to produce cartilage.
Next, the cells self-assemble into neocartilage without a scaffold. After that, researchers mature the tissue under mechanical tension to build strength.
That work takes place in orbit in flight-certified hardware developed by BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Researchers will collect samples from the first hours of differentiation to nearly 30 days of neocartilage culture. They will preserve those samples aboard the station with Evercode Cell Fixation.
Dr. Rachel Nordberg, who is leading the study on cell rejuvenation, said: “The ability to study rejuvenation of our minipig cells in microgravity at the single cell level requires us to be able to effectively preserve the cells with a long storage timeframe.”
She said the team also needs “a species-agnostic platform that has full functionality with our specialised animal model (the Yucatan minipig)”.
Dr. Wendy Brown said Parse gives the team flexibility to study minipig cells, collect samples at multiple timepoints, and handle the unpredictability of spaceflight operations.
A photo released with the June 29, 2026 announcement showed Rachel Nordberg, PhD, preparing the BioServe device before it goes into orbit. After the ISS mission, preserved samples will return to Earth for single cell RNA sequencing.
