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Researchers to evaluate how microgravity affects maturation of 3D bioprinted liver tissue to advance regenerative medicine in microgravity environment

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — To explore how 3D bioprinted liver tissue constructs complete with vascular channels behave in microgravity, the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) is sending an investigation to the International Space Station (ISS). The project, sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory^®, is set to launch on SpaceX’s 33^rd Commercial Resupply Services mission, contracted by NASA. 

Bioprinting allows scientists to create intricate 3D structures using living human cells to build functional replicas of human tissues and organs. These engineered tissues can be used to study disease or to repair tissues impaired by disease, injury, or natural aging. In this case, the focus is the liver—a vital organ with complex vascular networks. WFIRM researchers have successfully engineered liver tissue constructs with vascular channels that remain functional for 30 days in labs on Earth. However, on Earth, maintaining large, thick bioprinted tissue constructs poses challenges due to limitations in our ability to construct vascularized tissue. With limited vascularization, engineered tissues are limited in their ability to obtain oxygen and nutrients while removing metabolic wastes. Over time, the engineered tissues lose viability and function.

Microgravity may cause changes in cell distribution, behavior, and adherence properties. These changes could provide insight into how to manufacture better, longer-lasting tissues for disease research and treating patients on Earth.

The experiment aims to determine whether microgravity alters cell behavior, potentially improving tissue development and maturation, by utilizing Redwire Space’s Multi-Use Variable-Gravity Platform (MVP) facility. The successful completion of this experiment could advance tissue engineering on Earth and further set the stage for biomanufactured tissue and organs grown in space for transplantation, said James Yoo, a professor at WFIRM leading the investigation. 

“This collaborative investigation has the potential to yield remarkable results,” said Yoo. “By leveraging bioprinting technologies, we’ve created gel-like frameworks with channels for oxygen and nutrient flow that mimic natural blood vessels, opening up new possibilities for medical treatments both on Earth and in space.”

Two teams of researchers and students from WFIRM—Team Winston and Team WFIRM—used 3D printing technologies to create their tissue constructs as part of NASA’s Vascular Tissue Challenge, a prize competition aimed at accelerating tissue engineering innovations to benefit space exploration and people on Earth by improving regenerative medicine technologies. The teams won prizes totaling $400,000 in research funding as a result of their technology demonstration on Earth, and both teams will have the opportunity to test their innovations on the space station. Team Winston will be the first team to take their innovation to space.

For this investigation, Team Winston will assess tissue development and functionality of liver and vascular cells within the construct, considering microgravity’s impact on cell characteristics. For example, the team will examine whether vascular cells correctly form a lining in the blood vessel walls within the liver construct.

The Vascular Tissue Challenge is part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate. The Methuselah Foundation’s New Organ Alliance organized the competition for NASA and assembled a nine-member judging panel focused on regenerative medicine research with support from experts at NASA, the National Institute of Health, the ISS National Lab, and leading academic researchers.

“Our mission at the Methuselah Foundation involves advancing human longevity through regenerative medicine,” said David Gobel, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Methuselah Foundation. “By collaborating with NASA and the ISS National Lab to accelerate innovation, we’re not only improving human health on Earth but also preparing for the challenges of space exploration and bolstering the future space industry.”

The mission is targeted for launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station no earlier than August 24, 2025, at 2:45 a.m. EDT and will include more than 20 ISS National Lab-sponsored payloads. To learn more about all ISS National Lab-sponsored research on this mission, please visit our website.

To download a high-resolution image for this release, click here.

About the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory:
The International Space Station (ISS) is a one-of-a-kind laboratory that enables research and technology development not possible on Earth. As a public service enterprise, the ISS National Laboratory^® allows researchers to leverage this multiuser facility to improve quality of life on Earth, mature space-based business models, advance science literacy in the future workforce, and expand a sustainable and scalable market in low Earth orbit. Through this orbiting national laboratory, research resources on the ISS are available to support non-NASA science, technology, and education initiatives from U.S. government agencies, academic institutions, and the private sector. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space^® (CASIS^®) manages the ISS National Lab, under Cooperative Agreement with NASA, facilitating access to its permanent microgravity research environment, a powerful vantage point in low Earth orbit, and the extreme and varied conditions of space. To learn more about the ISS National Lab, visit our website.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, CASIS accepts corporate and individual donations to help advance science in space for the benefit of humanity. For more information, visit our donations page.

SOURCE International Space Station National Lab

WINGENE, Belgium, Aug. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Belgian agri-technology company APIX Biosciences NV, active in Europe and the United States, proudly announces the publication in Nature, by APIX Biosciences’ Scientific Founder Prof. Geraldine Wright and her team, on the production of plant-sterols in a yeast synthetic biology platform and the role of these phytosterols in honeybee nutrition (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09431-y). APIX is pleased to have acquired and integrated this technology in its portfolio of technologies.

“Sterols are one of many nutrient classes honeybees require in their diet. This publication describes how to genetically engineer yeast to make phytosterols. Experiments feeding these yeasts to honeybees shows that the presence of these sterols can improve their reproduction,” says APIX Biosciences’ Chairman Thierry Bogaert. “This confirms and extends the work that APIX Biosciences NV published last May in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B using these phytosterols produced through chemical synthesis (https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.3078)”.

APIX Biosciences NV, a privately held life sciences company based in Belgium, has developed a complete Pollen Replacing Feed for honeybees to mitigate the recurring shortages of adequate pollen to feed honeybees, a livestock that is essential for the pollination of many crops. Large-scale field tests in winter survival trials by leading commercial beekeepers show that the APIX feed reduces colony mortality by 50% compared to diets that are current standard practice. The APIX Pollen Replacing Feed offers beekeepers and growers of crops that are pollinated by honeybees a fundamental solution to the chronic undernutrition of bee populations. 

“The Pollen Replacing Feed that APIX Biosciences has exhaustively field tested and that it targets to launch in the USA in 2026 does not use the synthetic biology technology developed in the publication published in Nature today,” comments Jan Bogaert, CEO APIX Biosciences.

“APIX Nutrition llc, a wholly owned subsidiary of APIX Biosciences NV, was proud to be industrial partner of this research via BBSRC iCase grant (BB/M011224/1),” concludes Jan Bogaert, CEO of APIX Biosciences. “APIX Biosciences continuously adds to its portfolio of ingredients, tools and technology and continuously invests in improving its Pollen Replacing Feed over time.”

About APIX Biosciences NV
APIX Biosciences is a Belgian agri-technology company headquartered in Wingene Belgium, with operations in Europe and the United States. The company has developed an advanced, science-based Pollen Replacing Feed product for honeybees. This offers a fundamental solution to the chronic undernutrition of bee populations in North America and Europe—an important factor in the decline of pollinators. In doing so, APIX Biosciences is contributing to sustainable beekeeping and global food security.

Press Contact:

Jan Bogaert – CEO – APIX Biosciences NV
Email: Jan.Bogaert@apixbiosciences.com
Phone: +32 495 57 75 33

Wim Goemaere – CFO – APIX Biosciences NV
Email: Wim.Goemaere@apixbiosciences.com
Phone: +32 475 95 12 04

Insects are more influential than we realize

By showing that ant- and termite-based diets evolved repeatedly, the study highlights the overlooked role of social insects in shaping biodiversity. “This work gives us the first real roadmap, and what really stands out is just how powerful a selective force ants and termites have been over the last 50 million years, shaping environments and literally changing the face of entire species,” Barden said.

However, according to the study authors, we still do not have a clear picture of how much of an impact insects have had on the history of life on our planet. Lots of lineages have been reshaped by organisms with outsize biomass—and today, ants and termites have a combined biomass exceeding that of all living wild mammals, giving them a massive evolutionary influence.

However, there’s also a flip side. Eight of the 12 myrmecophagous origins are represented by just a single species, meaning most of these lineages could be vulnerable if their insect food sources decline. As Barden put it, “In some ways, specializing in ants and termites paints a species into a corner. But as long as social insects dominate the world’s biomass, these mammals may have an edge, especially as climate change seems to favor species with massive colonies, like fire ants and other invasive social insects.”

For now, the study authors plan to keep exploring how ants, termites, and other social insects have shaped life over millions of years, not through controlled lab experiments, but by continuing to use nature itself as the ultimate evolutionary archive. “Finding accurate dietary information for obscure mammals can be tedious, but each piece of data adds to our understanding of how these extraordinary diets came to be,” Vida argued.

Evolution, 2025. DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpaf121 (About DOIs)

Rupendra Brahambhatt is an experienced journalist and filmmaker. He covers science and culture news, and for the last five years, he has been actively working with some of the most innovative news agencies, magazines, and media brands operating in different parts of the globe.