Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko assembled cartilage cells without gravity in space using a custom-designed magnetic bioassembler known as Bioprinter Organ.Aut. The machine used a magnetic field to biofabricate 3D tissue constructs from tissue spheroids consisting of human chondrocytes. The results were published in July 2020 in Science Advances.

The technology used two opposing magnets to generate waves or fields that pushed the cells towards each other, enabling Kononenko to assemble them into complex tissue structures. The approach, known as magnetic levitational bioassembly, constructs tissue in microgravity by sewing cells together in a magnetic field to bypass the need for scaffolds (support structures) when building tissue.

The experiment was performed during ISS Expedition 58/59.

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