Growing Spherical 'Minibrains' in Space: A Revolutionary Experiment on the International Space Station

Stem cells derived from adult human skin cells will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to be transformed into neurons, microglia, and astrocytes, which will self-assemble into small spheres called spheroids. These spheroids can be used to model human brain diseases and test drugs. The experiment aims to assess how well the minibrains grow under microgravity and test the precision of a gene therapy designed to affect only neurons. The stem cells will be part of the cargo on the 19th Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services mission for NASA, scheduled to launch on August 1.