Cross-Species Cardiac Digital Twin: Predicting Astronaut Myocardial Remodeling from Rodent & Stem-Cell Spaceflight Data

Cardiovascular deconditioning is a top-priority risk for long-duration exploration, yet the astronaut heart cannot be sampled in flight, so its mechanism is observable only in rodents and human stem-cell tissue. We will build and validate the founding computational module of a cross-species cardiac digital twin that predicts how an individual astronaut’s heart structurally remodels in spaceflight by translating mechanistic mouse and human engineered-cardiac-tissue data onto sparse human imaging. Cross-species translation is the core innovation, not a convenience: abundant rodent and stem-cell flight data are the only viable route to mechanistic, individualized human prediction. We will (1) curate an open, preservation-filtered, sex-stratified cross-species cardiac-spaceflight data package; (2) build a 3D finite-element cardiac growth-and-remodeling model with a calibrated unloading/atrophy branch plus a rapid surrogate for uncertainty quantification; (3) learn an explicit, pathway-level mouse-to-human mapping with allometric scaling; and (4) validate against analog and flight imaging and generate the first uncertainty-bounded counterfactual of regional cardiac remodeling for a Mars-transit profile under an ASME V&V40 context-of-use. The effort uses only existing open data, advances TRL 2→3 in one year, and converts data NASA already owns into a predictive capability it lacks.

We will build and validate the founding computational module of a cross-species cardiac digital twin that predicts how an individual astronaut’s heart structurally remodels in spaceflight by translating mechanistic mouse and human engineered-cardiac-tissue data onto sparse human imaging.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.