MaxWell Biosystems and Exobiosphere Partner to Bring High-Content Electrophysiology to Space

Under the agreement, Exobiosphere and MaxWell Biosystems have entered into an exclusive partnership for the use of MaxWell Biosystems’ HD-MEA technology for high-throughput electrophysiological recording and screening in microgravity, including its integration into Exobiosphere’s Orbital High-Throughput Screener (OHTS).

The integration will enable researchers to directly measure the function of electrically active cells — including neurons and cardiac cells — during microgravity exposure, adding a new layer of functional data to automated drug screening in orbit.

Studying cells in microgravity can reveal changes that cannot be observed under conventional laboratory conditions. Until now, many experiments in orbit have focused on observing changes in cell structure or state, with some functional information inferred through imaging or measurements performed after samples return to Earth.

MaxWell Biosystems’ HD-MEA technology provides a different approach: it enables direct, non-invasive and label-free measurement of cellular electrical activity.

Dr. Bruno Santos, Director of R&D and co-founder of Exobiosphere said “Microgravity changes how cells behave, but until now our partners have largely had to infer function from what could be imaged or measured after the fact. Electrophysiology tells us what a neuron or a cardiomyocyte is actually doing while it is in orbit. For a drug programme, that is a critical question: does a compound change cellular function, and at what concentration? That is what makes the data worth flying for.”

When integrated into OHTS, the technology will allow Exobiosphere and its partners to capture functional measurements from neuronal and cardiac models while they are exposed to microgravity. These measurements can include network activity, signal propagation, action potential characteristics and arrhythmia-like events, providing insight into how cells respond to compounds under spaceflight conditions.

MaxWell Biosystems’ MaxTwo is a multi-well HD-MEA platform for scalable, label-free recording and stimulation. Each well features 26,400 electrodes at a density of 3,265 electrodes per square millimiter, enabling functional measurements from network activity down to cellular and subcellular signals. The system is designed to work with automated liquid handling and plate movement, making it suitable for integration into Exobiosphere’s automated experimental platform. Exobiosphere will qualify the system for flight and integrate it into OHTS, which combines automated cell culture, compound dosing and data capture without crew intervention.