The recent Artemis II mission, which saw Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and his crewmates travel beyond low Earth orbit, has brought renewed attention to the risks of space radiation. As humans venture further from Earth, the implications of radiation exposure become increasingly critical, not just for lunar exploration but also for any future missions to Mars. This is where Western University and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) come in, with their cutting-edge research into organ-on-chip and organoid-on-chip systems.
These tiny, transparent chambers, no larger than a postage stamp, are designed to replicate the complexity of human tissue. Nutrient-rich fluid moves through intricate networks of channels, keeping clusters of living human cells alive and allowing researchers to observe how they react under stress. This level of precision and control is crucial for studying the effects of radiation on the human body.
One of the key players in this research is Professor Tamie Poepping, director of Western's Biofluidics Research Lab. Her lab specializes in building platforms capable of controlling fluid at near-cellular scales, allowing researchers to isolate variables and monitor tissue behavior in real-time. This level of control is essential for understanding how organs respond to extreme environments, such as those experienced by astronauts.
Professor Poepping's work is closely tied to that of Professor Eugene Wong, who studies how humans, organs, tissues, and cells respond to radiotherapy. By exposing these organs and organoids-on-chip to radiation, Wong can study the detailed biological effects and individual variations. His long-term goal is to better understand both acute and delayed tissue damage in cancer patients, as well as those in environments that are difficult to study, such as astronauts in deep space and engineers and scientists working with nuclear reactors.
Wong's connection to this research stretches back decades, to his time as a post-doctoral fellow under Jerry Battista, Western's professor emeritus in medical biophysics. Battista's pioneering work helped shape the modern understanding of radiation exposure in extreme environments, and his textbook chapter on radiation exposure on a voyage to Mars continues to influence medical radiation research and space science today. Now, Wong is extending that work into entirely new environments.
Another key player in this collaboration is Professor Christopher Pin, who studies why patients with similar cancers can respond very differently to the same treatments. In his lab, Pin and his team grow organoids to study those differences directly, finding that even within the same cancer type, responses to radiation and chemotherapy can vary dramatically. This variability is the problem that traditional models, from flat cell cultures to animal testing, often fail to replicate with enough precision.
When paired with Poepping's engineering systems and Wong's radiation expertise, these organoid systems create a platform capable of answering questions that researchers previously couldn't study in real-time. At CNL, researchers are adapting these systems for radiobiology experiments related to emergency response and triage scenarios and space radiation exposure. They can now observe intermediate biological responses like metabolites, cytokines, and stress markers that reveal how damage unfolds and how tissue attempts to recover.
This collaboration, partially supported by NSERC and Western's Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, will engage trainees in research placements funded by collaborative grants at CNL in Chalk River, Ontario, this summer. The implications of this research extend far beyond space travel, with potential applications in cancer treatment and nuclear safety. By understanding how radiation affects the human body, we can improve how exposure is measured and how emergency responses are developed, ultimately making space exploration safer and more sustainable.
