Long-term storage of Organ-on-Chip: from deep space exploration to organ preservation on Earth

Space biological research studies the effects of the hostile space environment on the human body to enable future deep-space manned missions. As access to the ISS is limited, ground-based facilities are available on Earth to simulate different space stressors. Investigating the harmful effects of space on the human body is crucial to perform health risk assessments of astronauts during deep-space missions. Organ-on-chips (OoC) are complex 3D cell culture models derived from human cells and can be used to mimic adverse health effects occurring in the astronaut's body in space. OoCs require extensive resources and are time costly. To date, no off the shelf or long-term storage solutions are available for these OoCs. This PhD aims to develop a long-term storage method which extrapolation is not only relevant for deep-space manned missions, but also in organ preservation for transplantation purposes. During this project both cryopreservation (WP1) and hibernation-like state methodologies (WP2) will be developed for OoCs. Additionally, the effects of simulated space stressors on OoCs (WP3) and the protective mechanism from developed preservation methodologies on the effect of simulated space stressors (WP4) will be studied. This PhD proposal envisions to bring a solution to this medical need and would therefore benefits not only the space industry in Flanders but would also contribute to place Flanders biotech/pharma as leader in long-term storage of transplantation organs.