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IMEC USA — Neuropixels Electrophysiology in Space

FO Project: 106657
Title: Electrophysiology Recording of Neuronal Networks During Suborbital Spaceflight
TRL: 5→7
Period: 2021-01-01 – 2024-01-31
Lead Org: IMEC USA Nanoelectronics Design Center Inc — Jacksonville, FL (Florida subsidiary of imec Belgium)
PI: Veerle Reumers
Co-Is: Michael Meechin; Binata Joddar (UTEP — 3D bio-tissue / bioprinting)
Primary TX: TX06.3.6 Long-Duration Health
Companion FO project: 106660 — Lens-Free Imaging (LFI) microscope, TRL 6→7, same period, same company
Last updated: Session 86, 2026-04-07 — Added blood test [106712] investigation; completed full 3-project IMEC portfolio

What Was Tested

Neuropixels is imec's flagship neural recording chip: 960 low-impedance, low-noise recording sites on a single CMOS digital microsystem, capable of monitoring individual neurons across large tissue volumes simultaneously. Ground-based neuroscience labs worldwide use it for animal neurophysiology. This project asked whether the system could function in microgravity and whether human neuronal networks respond to suborbital conditions.

Flight: December 19, 2023 on Blue Origin New Shepard, Van Horn TX. Two technologies flew simultaneously on the same payload: the Neuropixels electrophysiology probe (this project, 106657) and the LFI lens-free imaging microscope (106660).

The test article used human glutamatergic neurons grown as 3D bio-tissue (developed with UTEP's Binata Joddar). Space Tango provided the flight hardware integration. University of Central Florida was a research partner.

Published Results

1. npj Microgravity (Nature portfolio, 2025):
"Adoption of microfluidic MEA technology for electrophysiology of 3D neuronal networks exposed to suborbital conditions"

Key findings: - Neuropixels system maintained full functionality through launch, microgravity, and reentry - Human glutamatergic neurons in microgravity exhibited altered VGLUT expression (vesicular glutamate transporter — the protein responsible for packaging glutamate into synaptic vesicles) while maintaining neuronal differentiation markers - This is the first device capable of monitoring continuous neural activity in space with single-cell resolution

Significance: VGLUT changes indicate that synaptic transmission — the core mechanism of neural communication — is altered by microgravity, even over a suborbital timescale. Neurons maintain their identity (differentiation markers intact) but change how they signal.

2. bioRxiv preprint (2022):
"Electrophysiological recording of human neuronal networks during suborbital spaceflight" — preliminary results from earlier test article development.

imec Background

imec (Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre) is a Belgian nanoelectronics R&D institute founded in 1984: 4,000+ researchers, 12,000 m² cleanroom in Leuven, one of the world's leading semiconductor R&D organizations outside the major chip foundries. It operates as a nonprofit research center with industry consortium membership as its primary funding model. IMEC USA is the Florida subsidiary — an R&D center, not a standard commercial company.

This funding structure explains the USASpending picture: imec USA does not appear in federal contract databases as a prime contractor. Their funding flows through research partnerships and consortium fees. The FO project (106657) was the direct funding vehicle for this work.

Significance

This is the first real-time neural activity monitoring in space with single-cell resolution. Prior spaceflight biology was limited to endpoint assays — tissue fixed after flight, then analyzed. Neuropixels enables continuous, live monitoring during the microgravity exposure itself.

Neurons are among the most microgravity-sensitive cell types (highly mechanosensitive, with gravity-dependent cytoskeletal organization). Understanding how microgravity alters synaptic transmission is foundational for astronaut neurology — especially relevant for long-duration Mars missions where cumulative neural changes could affect cognitive performance and motor control.

The Neuropixels platform also has immediate non-space commercial value: it is already widely used in neuroscience labs for rodent and primate neurophysiology. The space validation adds a new use case (microgravity biomedical monitoring) to an established commercial product line.

Outcome Category

Research/Clinical — peer-reviewed publications, novel neuroscience findings. No commercial space product yet. The primary commercial vehicle for Neuropixels is the existing ground-based neuroscience market; the FO project generated publication-quality science and space-validated the platform for potential follow-on biomedical monitoring payloads.

This fits the academic/institutional R&D archetype: imec is a research institute using FO access to microgravity to generate publications and validate its technology in a new environment. Commercial value is indirect — the Neuropixels product line benefits from demonstrated space functionality.

Timeline

Date Event
2021-01-01 FO project 106657 starts
2022 bioRxiv preprint: preliminary electrophysiology results
Dec 19, 2023 Blue Origin New Shepard flight, Van Horn TX — Neuropixels + LFI fly together
2024-01-31 FO project closes; TRL reaches 7
2025 npj Microgravity (Nature) paper published — VGLUT findings

Confidence

  • Blue Origin New Shepard flight (Dec 19, 2023): confirmed (imec press releases, NASA articles)
  • TRL 5→7: confirmed (TechPort 106657)
  • npj Microgravity publication (2025): confirmed (Nature portfolio, imec press)
  • VGLUT expression changes in microgravity: confirmed (peer-reviewed finding)
  • No large USASpending contracts for IMEC USA: confirmed (queried; nonprofit R&D institute funding model)

Session 76 Update: Neuropixels Opto, No ISS Follow-On Confirmed

Key findings

  1. No ISS follow-on confirmed — web search found no announced ISS or orbital mission for Neuropixels electrophysiology. Reumers describes "exploring opportunities with future partners" but nothing contracted. The suborbital demonstration was successful, but the jump from New Shepard (minutes) to ISS (weeks/months) requires substantially different hardware integration.
  2. Neuropixels Opto announced (Feb 2025) — a new combined electrophysiology + optogenetics probe (bioRxiv 2025.02.04.636286). This is a ground-based neuroscience tool, not space-specific, but it demonstrates imec's continued product line evolution. If a follow-on space mission happens, it would likely use Neuropixels 2.0 or Opto rather than the original probe.
  3. npj Microgravity paper confirmed published (2025) — "Adoption of microfluidic MEA technology for electrophysiology of 3D neuronal networks exposed to suborbital conditions." This is the primary peer-reviewed output of the FO project.
  4. imec 2025 overview features the space work prominently — suggests institutional interest in continued space neuroscience, even without a contracted follow-on.

Assessment update

This page's status is unchanged: successful FO demonstration producing a peer-reviewed paper with novel neuroscience findings (VGLUT alteration in microgravity), but no downstream mission or commercial space product. The publication is the primary impact. For a nonprofit R&D institute like imec, this is the expected outcome — space-validated technology adds to the Neuropixels platform's credentials without necessarily generating space-specific revenue.

Session 83: LFI Companion Project [106660] Investigation

LFI Project Details

106660 — Functional Integration of Lens Free Imaging in Suborbital Flight
TRL: 6→7 | Period: 2021-01-01 – 2024-01-31 | Status: Completed
TX: TX06.3.1 Medical Diagnosis and Prognosis
PI: Veerle Reumers | Co-Is: Candice Hovell, Jana Stoudemire (Space Tango VP), Melanie Coathup (UCF Medicine), Michael Kinzel (UCF Aerospace), Michael Meechin
Partners: Space Tango (Lexington, KY — flight hardware), UCF (Orlando, FL — bone health samples), NeoCity Academy (Kissimmee, FL — STEM education)

What flew: 4 LFI (lens-free imaging) microscope modules operated in parallel during the Dec 19, 2023 Blue Origin New Shepard flight, capturing both static and time-lapse images in variable gravity conditions. The LFI system uses digital holography — no optical components or mechanical focusing. Images reconstructed from interference patterns achieve subcellular resolution (~1 μm) over wide fields of view (>20 mm²).

Samples: UCF's Melanie Coathup provided fluidic samples to study microgravity effects on bone health. The research question: does absence of gravity-driven interstitial fluid flow trigger protective or destructive cellular responses leading to bone loss? Coathup published foundational work in Bone Research (2022): "Changes in Interstitial Fluid flow, Mass Transport and the Bone Cell Response in Microgravity and Normogravity."

LFI Downstream Assessment

Publication status: No LFI-specific peer-reviewed paper found as of April 2026. The npj Microgravity 2025 paper covers only Neuropixels. The LFI results from the Dec 2023 flight appear unpublished — a ~28-month gap. This is the primary open question for this project.

Commercial product: imec sells LFI demo kits commercially — a compact evaluation system for lab-on-chip, cell monitoring, and particle inspection applications. The space validation adds a credential but the product line is ground-oriented.

UCF follow-on: - Coathup received SEED funding from UCF for space travel bone research using imec LFI - UCF joined the Space-Edge Accelerator for space biomedical innovation - Kinzel (UCF Aerospace) continues photonics/optics + microgravity research - No ISS follow-on announced for LFI (same as Neuropixels)

USASpending: IMEC USA has only $449K in federal contracts (all DoD: Navy custom scanner $248K, IR sensor $167K, RDCS $34K). No NASA prime contracts — consistent with the nonprofit R&D institute funding model where FO was the direct NASA vehicle.

Combined Assessment (Neuropixels + LFI)

Two companion FO projects, same flight, same company, different outcomes: - Neuropixels [106657]: Published (npj Microgravity 2025), novel finding (VGLUT alteration), established commercial product. Success. - LFI [106660]: No publication found, commercial product exists but space-specific value unclear. Incomplete — awaiting publication.

The bone health research is scientifically interesting but the LFI technology's space value proposition is less clear than Neuropixels. Traditional microscopes are already on ISS (Leica). LFI's advantage (compact, no alignment, no mechanical parts) matters most for constrained platforms (CubeSats, lunar habitats) but no such application has been announced.

Session 86: Blood Test Project [106712] — Third IMEC FO Project

Project Details

106712 — Silicon-based Microfluidic Blood Test for Spaceflight
TRL: 4→5 | Period: 2019-10-10 – 2022-03-31 | Status: Completed
TX: TX06.3.1 Medical Diagnosis and Prognosis
PI: Veerle Reumers | Destinations: Moon, Mars, Others Inside the Solar System
No outcomes, no library items recorded in TechPort.

Technology: miDiagnostics nFP

The device is a nanofluidic processor (nFP) — a silicon chip embedded in a credit-card-sized single-use test card. Capillary forces alone drive fluid movement (no pumps, no valves, no gravity dependence). Capabilities: complete blood count (CBC) with white blood cell differential, blood volume metering, dilution/lysis buffer mixing, red blood cell lysis. Lens-free imaging readout. Reader is 32 cubic inches.

Commercial spinoff: The nFP technology is commercialized through miDiagnostics, an IMEC spin-off. In March 2020 (during the active FO project), miDiagnostics raised €14M to accelerate terrestrial point-of-care commercialization. CEO Nicolas Vergauwe framed it as serving "the most remote places" — both space and underserved Earth settings. The FO project likely served as NASA validation/credibility supporting the fundraise — a classic FO value pattern.

Flight: Parabolic, Not Suborbital

This project used parabolic flight (~2021), not the Dec 2023 Blue Origin NS-24 flight that carried LFI and Neuropixels. Lower fidelity (20–25 second microgravity windows) but sufficient for gravity-independence proof-of-concept. The project completed March 2022 — one year before the suborbital campaign.

Results: No Publication Found (~48 Months Post-Close)

No peer-reviewed paper or conference proceeding found for the blood test parabolic flight results. This is a longer silence than LFI (~28 months) or Neuropixels (which did publish in npj Microgravity 2025). The TechPort record shows TRL 5 achieved, so the test nominally succeeded — but results remain unpublished. Possible explanations: negative/inconclusive data, commercial pathway made publication lower priority, or miDiagnostics treats results as proprietary.

Three-Project IMEC Portfolio Summary

Project Technology Test Vehicle Flight TRL Publication
106712 CBC blood test (nFP) Parabolic flight ~2021 4→5 None (~48mo)
106660 Lens-free imaging (LFI) Blue Origin NS-24 Dec 2023 6→7 None (~28mo)
106657 Neuropixels electrophysiology Blue Origin NS-24 Dec 2023 5→7 Published (npj Microgravity 2025)

Pattern: Only 1 of 3 IMEC FO projects has produced a peer-reviewed publication. The blood test and LFI remain unpublished despite successful flights. For a nonprofit R&D institute, this publication silence is notable.

Reumers: Role Evolution

Veerle Reumers has moved from PI to Head of Health Strategy and Portfolio at IMEC USA. In May 2025, IMEC signed a new partnership with MIT (joint research lab for nanoelectronics-based minimally invasive diagnostics). This is terrestrial-focused, not space-specific. No new NASA FO proposals or space flight campaigns visible for 2025–2026.

Assessment: IMEC USA's NASA space health engagement appears to have plateaued. Three FO projects (2019–2024) may represent the complete arc.

Open Threads

  • ~~What were the LFI lens-free imaging results from companion project 106660? Any separate publication?~~ Investigated Session 83: No publication found as of April 2026 (~28 months post-flight). Bone health samples analyzed but results not yet published.
  • ~~Is Space Tango pursuing a follow-on ISS payload using Neuropixels for longer-duration neural monitoring?~~ Partially resolved Session 76: No confirmed ISS follow-on. Reumers exploring future partnerships.
  • ~~What about the 3rd IMEC project [106712]?~~ Investigated Session 86: Blood test via miDiagnostics nFP; parabolic flight ~2021; no publication after ~48 months.
  • Does the VGLUT alteration persist post-flight (recovery experiments)?
  • Any SBIR or CLPS payload proposal emerging from this collaboration?
  • Is UTEP's 3D bio-tissue (Joddar lab) being developed for other FO or ISS payloads?
  • NEW (76): Would Neuropixels Opto (optogenetics + electrophysiology) enable fundamentally different space neuroscience experiments?
  • NEW (83): Will Coathup's UCF bone health LFI data produce a publication? The 28-month gap post-flight is notable.
  • NEW (86): Will miDiagnostics' terrestrial commercialization success (€14M raise) lead to any return to space diagnostics, or was the FO project a one-off credential?

Cross-references