One of the coolest science labs on the planet is, in fact, off the planet—250 miles up, aboard the International Space Station. Few people are making more intriguing use of it than Kenneth Savin, chief scientist of Redwire, a bioengineering company specializing in manufacturing protein crystals and human tissue in the microgravity environment of the station. Savin, a PhD chemist who once worked at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)—the team that runs the U.S. National Lab on the International Space Station—knows that there’s a lot of work that can be done in space that simply can’t be duplicated on Earth. Near-zero-g frees protein crystals from the forcing factor of gravity, allowing them to assemble themselves into larger and higher quality configurations. The hope is that these can then be used on Earth to make drugs to battle cancer and other diseases—though no such drugs have yet been manufactured.
Tissue growth is further along. Astronauts performing Redwire experiments have used 3D printers to manufacture human meniscus and cardiac tissue—also free of gravity, which would cause the material to puddle during printing. Grown from a patient’s own cells, the tissue can then be flown back to Earth and implanted therapeutically.
“We're looking at printing out patches that could be used as a [cardiac tissue] replacement,” says Savin. “Damaged tissue from myocardial infarction is, in many cases, damaged and never repairs.” Though none of these innovations have yet launched yet in humans, they hold the promise of improving—and saving—lives.