NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Scientists and payload developers can get more information on International Space Station research facilities by contacting the ISS Payloads Office or at 281-244-6187.

Overview | Description | Applications | Operations | Results | Publications | Images

Facility/Payload Overview

Brief Facility Summary

The BioServe Culture Apparatus (BCA) was developed for biological studies including suspension cell culture and tissue engineering studies. The BCA allows for passive gas exchange in a sterile environment with the ability to provide growth media, sampling, and fixation of the cultures. In addition, BCA, which is contained inside the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA), allows for thermally controlled or software controlled time course sampling.

Facility Manager(s)

Stefanie Countryman, BioServe Space Technologies, University of Colorado - Colorado, Boulder, CO

Co-Facility Manager(s)

Information Pending

Facility Developer

BioServe Space Technologies, University of Colorado - Colorado, Boulder, CO

Sponsoring Agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Expeditions Assigned

Information Pending

Previous ISS Missions

BCA was previously used for investigations performed on STS-106.

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Facility/Payload Description

Facility Summary

• The BioServe Culture Apparatus (BCA) meets the needs of biological studies including cell culture and tissue engineering, requiring minimal crew interaction. The base of the BCA is thermally controlled via the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA). The BCA contains a media and a fixative syringe, an automated vacutainer for sampling, and gas exchange culture bags.



• Eight BCAs can fit into the CGBA thus allowing for several different experiments or experiment set-ups to be conducted at one time. Each individual experiment can be conducted separately via time course or thermal control for activation and termination.

Description

BioServe Culture Apparatus (BCA) supports cell cultures contained in silicone or teflon bags to provide passive gas exchange. The hardware enables experiments to be activated, sampled and fixed while on orbit. The BCA is housed in an Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA) ICM v.4 or 5 for computer and thermal control.

BCA has passive gas exchange within a sterile environment provided by containment in teflon or silicone culture/sample bags. Four 30-ml culture bags provide a total of 120-ml culture volume. Two 50-ml syringes are used for incremental media or fixative injection, four 5-ml vaccutainers are provided for independent culture sampling with or without fixative. CGBA can support eight BCA time course experiments with individual temperature control between -10 degrees C and 37 degrees C.

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Operations

Facility Operations

he CGBA ICM v.4 and 5 provides highly-accurate temperature control between -10 degrees C and 37 degrees C. Eight individually-controlled temperature areas are available inside CGBA when loaded with the BCA hardware. The CGBA ICM v.4 and 5 are fully equipped with data, video, and telemetry electronics to allow telescience remote operation and can be equipped with a number of bioprocessing inserts, including the BCA.

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Results/More Information

Information Pending

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Availability

Information Pending

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Related Web Sites

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Publications

Results Publications

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Related Publications

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Images

BCA supports cell cultures contained in silicone or teflon bags to provide passive gas exchange. The hardware enables experiments to be activated, sampled and fixed while in orbit. Image courtesy of BioServe Space Technologies, University of Colorado - Boulder, Boulder, CO.
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Information Provided and Updated by the ISS Program Scientist's Office