By Cedars Sinai News –
Cedars-Sinai investigators are one step closer to manufacturing stem cells in space, which could speed up the development of new medical therapies on Earth. The first published data from the experiments conducted on a private space mission appeared in the peer-reviewed Nature portfolio journal NPJ Microgravity.
By introducing DNA into mature adult cells, scientists can reprogram them into a type of stem cell called induced pluripotent stem cells. They can then turn the cells into other cell types. This process has been used for years to manufacture or replicate large numbers of cells for research and the development of new disease treatments.
Previous studies have found that when grown under microgravity, the near-weightlessness found in space, stem cells functiondifferently. The lack of gravity could speed up cell manufacturing, said Arun Sharma, PhD, research scientist in the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, research professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and the Smidt Heart Institute and co-senior author of the study.
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