Astronauts are growing the beginnings of new organs on board the International Space Station.

The experiment is an attempt to grow human tissue by sending adult human stem cells into space, and allowing them to grow in space.

Eventually, it is hoped, the stem cells will develop into bone, cartilage and other organs. If that is successful, the discoveries could be used to try and grow organs for transplant, the scientists involved say.

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The experiment uses weightlessness as a tool, according to Cara Thiel, one of the two researchers from the University of Zurich who are conducting the research. The lack of gravity on board the International Space Station will be used to encourage the stem cells to grow into tissue in three dimensions, rather than the single-layerstructures that form on Earth.

It is being conducted by the astronauts on board the International Space Station using a mobile mini-laboratory that was sent on a SpaceX rocket last week. The experiment will last for a month, during which scientists will watch to see how the stem cells grow.

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The first ever selfie taken on an alien planet, captured by Nasa's Curiosity Rover in the early days of its mission to explore Mars in 2012

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Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored, pictured here on 1 January 2019 by a camera on Nasa's New Horizons spaceraft at a distance of 4.1 billion miles from Earth

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An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory in January 2012. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust

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The first ever image of a black hole, captured by the Event Horizon telescope, as part of a global collaboration involving Nasa, and released on 10 April 2019. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth

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Pluto, as pictured by Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft as it flew over the dwarf planet for the first time ever in July 2015

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A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory in 2019. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun

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Dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks running downhill on the surface Mars were believed to be evidence of contemporary flowing water. It has since been suggested that they may instead be formed by flowing sand

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Morning Aurora: Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station in October 2015

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Mystic Mountain, a pillar of gas and dust standing at three-light-years tall, bursting with jets of gas flom fledgling stars buried within, was captured by Nasa's Hubble Space Telelscope in February 2010

Nasa/ESA/STScI

The first ever selfie taken on an alien planet, captured by Nasa's Curiosity Rover in the early days of its mission to explore Mars in 2012

Nasa/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Death of a star: This image from Nasa's Chandra X-ray telescope shows the supernova of Tycho, a star in our Milky Way galaxy

Nasa

Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored, pictured here on 1 January 2019 by a camera on Nasa's New Horizons spaceraft at a distance of 4.1 billion miles from Earth

Getty

An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory in January 2012. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust

Nasa

The first ever image of a black hole, captured by the Event Horizon telescope, as part of a global collaboration involving Nasa, and released on 10 April 2019. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth

Getty

Pluto, as pictured by Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft as it flew over the dwarf planet for the first time ever in July 2015

Nasa/APL/SwRI

A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory in 2019. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun

Nasa

Dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks running downhill on the surface Mars were believed to be evidence of contemporary flowing water. It has since been suggested that they may instead be formed by flowing sand

Nasa/JPL/University of Arizona

Morning Aurora: Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station in October 2015

Nasa/Scott Kelly

If it is successful, they hope to switch from a small laboratory to bigger production. From there, they could use the process to generate tissue for transplants by taking cells from patients, or generating organ-like materialthat could be used to test drugs, either ensuring that it works for a specific patients or reducing the number of animals used in experiments.

On Earth, tissue grows in monolayer cultures: generating flat, 2D tissue. But investigations both in space and Earth suggest that in microgravity, cells exhibit spatially unrestricted growth and assemble into complex 3D aggregates, saidOliver Ullrich, who is also leading the research.

Previous research has involved simulated ad real experiments, mostly using tumour cells, and placing real human stem cells into microgravity simulators. But for the next stage of the research there is no alternative to the ISS, he says, because 3D tissue formation of this kind requires several days or even weeks in microgravity.

After the month-long experiment, the scientists will get the samples back and expect to see successful formation oforganoids smaller, more simple versions of organs inside the test tubes. The test tubes were launched with stem cells and are expected to return to Earth with organ-like tissue structures inside, said Professor Ullrich.

Scientists are still not sure why the conditions of the International Space Station lead to the assembly of complex 3D tissue structures. Professor Ullrich and other scientists are still continuing to research how the gravitational force and the molecular machinery in the cell interact to create new and different kinds of tissue on Earth and in space.

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Astronauts growing new organs on International Space Station - The Independent