UConn To Be Part Of Space Flights Under NASA Research Award

STORRS, CT — UConn is headed to space.

A University of Connecticut biomedical engineering professor currently specializing in tissue research has been awarded a NASA contract to fabricate "therapeutic biomaterials" under low gravity conditions aboard the International Space Station.

Officials outlined the award in a UConn Today post.

Associate Professor Yupeng Chen is leading a team of six graduate and eight undergraduate students in the project. The team is slated to work with astronauts aboard the space station on experiments "aimed at advancing in-space manufacturing concepts for the production of potentially marketable biomaterials for use in therapeutic and regenerative treatments here on earth."

The applications include arthritis, cancer and neurological diseases, UConn officials said.

The $1.86 million contract is one of eight awarded in connection with a NASA research announcement seeking space production applications for three low-Earth orbit missions scheduled over a 27-month span.

The UConn team will be working with Eascra Biotech of Boston and Axiom Space, a private aerospace company based in Houston, Texas – to conduct a "proof-of-concept study aboard the ISS involving the fabrication of Janus base nanomaterials, a family of novel biomaterials that mimic DNA."

Two of the flights will be funded by NASA and one flight will be supported by an Axiom private astronaut mission in the spring of 2023.

See more about the endeavor at the UConn Today site.