We study the behaviour of cells outside the Earth’s biosphere (i.e. in the International Space Station). Space technology provides the opportunity to expose cells intentionally to the harsh external environment or selected parameters of it. Space is a unique environment to perform scientific experiments. Microgravity perturbs the behaviour of microorganisms and mammalian cells, which results in specific responses that can lead to new insights. These new findings can then help further research on Earth.
We focus our mechanobiology research on Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer’s yeast), C. albicans and bone cells (osteoblasts, osteocytes). We are also exploring the nanomotion detector as a life detector to detect the presence of living organisms in extreme environments, such as exoplanets.
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