By Lynda De Widt – Mayo Clinic
Growing up in Nigeria, Dr. Zubair had high ambitions, including dreams of becoming an astronaut. Though he has not taken flight, his work has – literally. In 2017, several samples of donated stem cells from Dr. Zubair’s lab were on a rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The goal was to find out if the cells could hold up in space and be more quickly mass-produced in microgravity for use in stroke treatment.