A scientific heartthrob! ❤️ You’re watching 3D-engineered heart tissues beat on the International Space Station, part of the Cardinal Heart experiment organized by ISSNationalLab and NIHGov. Cardinal Heart, which ran on the ISS in 2021, studied the effects of microgravity on the human heart; these changes are similar to those seen in age-related heart diseases back on Earth. The investigation confirmed that microgravity exposure causes significant changes in heart cell function and gene expression. Cardinal Heart 2.0, scheduled to launch on NASA’s SpaceX CRS-27 resupply mission in March, takes this research one step further to test whether certain drugs can reduce or prevent microgravity-induced changes—which could also enable the development of countermeasures for patients at high risk of developing heart disease back on Earth. #NASA #ISS #SpaceStation #Science #Microgravity #Research #Heart #HeartHealth #HumanHeart #HumanHealth