By Brian Buntz – Drug Discovery & Development –
Emory University stem-cell biologist Chunhui Xu is looking to space for a new way to mend damaged hearts on Earth. Her team is using the International Space Station (ISS) National Lab to test if the near-weightless environment of microgravity can make heart cells divide faster and survive longer, a novel approach borrowed from cancer researchers who noticed tumors grow more aggressively in orbit. The research aims to overcome a fundamental challenge: once cardiac muscle dies, it barely regrows. This reality leaves many end-stage heart-failure patients facing long transplant waits.
Results from the research were recently featured in Biomaterials and highlighted in Upward, the official magazine of the ISS National Lab.
