Comprehensive Organ System Modeling in Outer Space (COSMOS)
The COSMOS grant from ARPA-H funds research using space-based organ models to study tissue aging and accelerate regenerative medicine and drug development.
Funder: Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health
Due Dates: October 7, 2026: Proposal Due
Funding Amounts: Program awards typically range from $50M–$150M total, shared across selected teams; actual award size and duration are negotiated per project.
Summary: Accelerates regenerative medicine research by investigating tissue aging in space to enable rapid, cost-effective drug development using microgravity experiments.
Description
The Comprehensive Organ System Modeling in Outer Space (COSMOS) initiative, led by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), aims to transform regenerative medicine by rigorously studying whether microgravity in low Earth orbit (LEO) accelerates aging in human tissues. By leveraging advanced microphysiological systems (organs-on-chips) and organoids, COSMOS will quantify tissue aging rates in space versus Earth for critical organs—brain, heart, kidney, and uterus. The program seeks to establish a new, autonomous, high-throughput drug screening platform in space, potentially enabling faster and more cost-effective development of regenerative therapies, and positioning the U.S. as a leader in space-based biotechnology.
