# Electrical Stimulation of Human Myocytes in Microgravity: An In Vitro Model to Evaluate Therapeutics to Counteract Muscle Wasting

> **NIH NIH UH3** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2020 · $471,973

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
This grant application, in response to RFA-TR-18-001 “NIH-CASIS Coordinated Microphysiological Systems
Program for Translational Research in Space”, proposes an outstanding collaborative effort among
investigators at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, SpacePharma, INC, Florida Hospital
Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes, the University of Florida Department of
Biomedical Engineering and Space Technology and Advanced Research Systems (STaARS). Astronauts
suffer from muscle degeneration after prolonged spaceflight. These effects are largely reversible; however, the
intrinsic changes in skeletal muscle observed with age such as DNA damage, cellular stress, mitochondrial
dysfunction and senescence are likely to overlap with cellular mechanisms induced in microgravity. Thus,
studies in microgravity using human tissue to model disease conditions may greatly contribute to development
of clinically relevant approaches to address muscle wasting in the elderly referred to as sarcopenia. The
number of elderly individuals over the age of 60 is growing at an unprecedented rate from ~11% of the global
population today to ~21% by 2050. Therapeutic options to treat sarcopenia are relatively non-existent in part
because of an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms controlling age-related skeletal muscle
dysfunction. Our team has been focused on developing a millifluidic lab-on-a-chip system to study human
skeletal muscle cell growth and gene expression changes in microgravity. We have established culture
conditions for primary human myocytes isolated from young, healthy and older, sedentary volunteers and have
biological data indicating that the cells retain the phenotype of the donor tissue. Furthermore, we have
fabricated a flight ready chip with multiple culture chambers. For this proposal, we plan to incorporate
electrodes into the chip and determine electric field strength distribution by simulation to optimize conditions for
electrically stimulating muscle myocytes embedded in a native mimicking extracellular matrix. Our lab-on-a-
chip will be integrated into a remote controlled, fully automated laboratory solution complete with a fluid
handling system, an optical detection system to record contraction, and a software platform for near real-time
control of the experiment on the ISS housed in STaARS-1 experimental flight facility. On a subsequent flight,
we propose to test natural products with anti-atrophy properties in the validated lab-on-a-chip system. Drug
delivery to the muscle cultures will be facilitated via the addition of an administration port capable of delivering
multiple drug dilutions. Our next generation lab-on-a-chip system stands to be a leader in miniaturized lab
disease modeling to study pathophysiological changes in muscle tissue induced in microgravity intended to
advance drug efficacy and toxicological testing of therapeutics to elevate the burden of muscle wasting.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10209269
- **Project number:** 4UH3TR002598-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Siobhan Malany
- **Activity code:** UH3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $471,973
- **Award type:** 4N
- **Project period:** 2018-12-21 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10209269

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10209269, Electrical Stimulation of Human Myocytes in Microgravity: An In Vitro Model to Evaluate Therapeutics to Counteract Muscle Wasting (4UH3TR002598-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10209269. Licensed CC0.

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