Redwire House has efficiently “bioprinted” a human knee meniscus aboard the Worldwide House Station, a landmark growth that might assist individuals recovering from meniscus accidents right here on Earth.
The meniscus cartilage was printed on Redwire’s BioFabrication Facility (BFF) on the ISS. As a part of the investigation, referred to as BFF-Meniscus-2, after the BFF printed the meniscus with dwelling human cells, it was transferred to Redwire’s Superior House Experiment Processor for a 14-day enculturation course of.
After the tradition course of was full, the meniscus was packaged up and despatched again to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission. NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Warren Hoburg, Stephen Bowen, and UAE astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi performed the investigation.
As a part of the experiment, Redwire partnered with the biomedical analysis heart Uniformed Companies College of the Well being Sciences Heart for Biotechnology, ah institute that investigates therapies that might assist warfighters. Meniscus accidents are among the many commonest orthopedic accidents affecting U.S. service members.
Redwire House has made main strides into biotechnology in latest months. Earlier this summer season, the corporate, which is a subsidiary of Redwire Company, introduced it will open a 30,000 sq. foot analysis park targeted on biotech and microgravity in Indiana.
Redwire govt vice chairman John Vellinger lauded the printing as a “groundbreaking milestone.”
“Demonstrating the power to efficiently print advanced tissue comparable to this meniscus is a significant leap ahead towards the event of a repeatable microgravity manufacturing course of for dependable bioprinting at scale,” he mentioned.
The corporate has a lot longer-term ambitions for bioprinting and microgravity analysis in house. On a SpaceX Industrial Resupply mission to the ISS scheduled for November, Redwire will launch payloads targeted on pharmaceutical drug growth in microgravity and an experiment to bioprint cardiac tissue.
Redwire additionally signed an settlement with Sierra House that will see Redwire’s biotech and in-space manufacturing know-how built-in into Sierra’s Giant Built-in Versatile Surroundings (LIFE) house station module. LIFE shall be a part of Orbital Reef, a non-public house station being developed with Blue Origin, Boeing and others.
