Offworld Biotech: Nikon Experimentation Microscope in Orbit (NEMO) (Video)

[NASA]. astronaut and Expedition 75 commander Jessica Meir shows off a tissue chamber that houses samples for viewing inside the Nikon Experimentation Microscope in Orbit (NEMO).

Located inside the International Space Station’s Destiny laboratory module, NEMO enables automated imaging of growing cells to study microgravity’s effects on disease, tissue development, and drug responses. Credit: NASA

From Jessica Meir @Astro_Jessica — in orbit.

We found NEMO! Here on the @Space_Station that stands for the newly installed Nikon Experimentation Microscope in Orbit (NEMO), designed and built by @NikonUSA and @BioServeST.

This fresh addition to our scientific repertoire is not only a fully automated imaging system that allows for real time analysis, it also provides an incubator that controls environmental conditions (temperature, %CO2) to maintain live cells throughout the the process.

This capability could lead to breakthroughs in drug discovery, tissue engineering and life science research.

Photo 1: Image of the test sample from the first operation of the microscope. For you biology nerds out there, these are mesenchymal stem cells (GOLGI Bodies are stained green and microtubules are orange/red). Bio Art!

Video: Installing the test sample prior to the imaging.

Special thanks to @shankini at @BioServeST for the image (and amazing remote guiding for so many of our experiments on the ISS).

Nikon Contributes to Research on the Effects of Microgravity in Drug Discovery

In 2021, the company was selected for an ISS development support project for private companies, supported by CASIS with U.S. government grant funding. This research focuses on developing equipment that enables long-term visual analysis of cell behavior and biological tissue responses to pharmaceuticals in the limited space of the ISS experiment module. The contract for this project has been concluded between NASA and NII, with NII responsible for project management and Nikon and NII jointly responsible for development of the live cell observation system.

On the ISS, observations using MPS* will be conducted via the Nikon Experimentation Microscope in Orbit (NEMO), a system combining Nikon’s live cell observation system which can observe and evaluate the behavior of cells and biological tissues with high precision, and a cell culture incubator and automated media perfusion system developed by BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe) in Boulder, Colorado, U.S. BioServe’s system maintains an optimal environment for cells, while Nikon’s live cell observation system serves as the microscope, enabling high-precision evaluation and analysis of the effects of microgravity on living organisms through observation of cell behavior and biological tissue responses in space.

Astrobiology, space life science,