Bioengineering technologies for enabling biomedical research in space

Abstract

Sustained human presence in space requires research platforms capable of capturing the physiological consequences of microgravity, radiation, and isolation, while operating within the severe mass, volume, and crew-time constraints of orbital missions. This review surveys bioengineering strategies that have been adapted to meet these demands: tissue engineering, three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting, tissue chips, and biosensors. Tissue-engineered constructs and human stem cell‐derived organoids provide human-relevant alternatives to animal models and exploit the absence of gravitational settling to generate more uniform, complex multicellular structures, though vascularization and long-term functional stability remain unresolved challenges. 3D bioprinting in microgravity reduces construct collapse and sedimentation-driven defects, and extrusion-based platforms such as the ISS BioFabrication Facility have already demonstrated in-flight tissue printing, though mechanical equivalence to native tissue and photopolymerization-based approaches remain areas of active development. Tissue chips offer a small-footprint, human-specific alternative to traditional cell culture and have been used to model organ systems ranging from cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue to the blood‐brain barrier, supporting both disease modeling and radiation countermeasure testing in orbit. Biosensors, whether deployed independently or integrated with tissue chip platforms, enable real-time, in‐situ data collection that reduces reliance on crew time and sample return. Together, these technologies are converging toward unified, autonomous platforms for tissue fabrication, culture, and monitoring in space. We discuss the current state, limitations, and future directions of each approach, and highlight the opportunities for their integration to advance both astronaut health and terrestrial regenerative medicine.