January 30, 2024 – Cape Canaveral, Florida – The experiment Immune Cell Activation (ICA) has been successfully launched on board Cygnus NG-20 by means of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, towards the International Space Station (ISS). ICA is the second Bioreactor Express payload.
The experiment is conducted by an entirely Italian consortium composed of the Cericol division of Colorobbia Consulting and the University of Florence with the support of Kayser Italia.
The scientific protocol underlying the project is aimed at understanding the impacts of the space environment and in particular of microgravity, on the activation processes of the cells of the immune system (T and B cells) by specific nanoparticles, which have the property of strengthen the ability of lymphocytes to fight tumor cells; specifically, the ICA experiment aims to study the impacts of nanoparticles on melanoma tumor cells. The results of this experiment conducted in space could help in the definition of protocols for the treatment of the disease.