As she got her Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Koç University Turkey, Ezgi pursued her interest in medical technologies with a Biomedical Engineering Master’s in RWTH Aachen. She started her PhD in April 2023 as a part of the “PULSE” project. Her focus is to develop and implement a 3D bioprinter that utilizes multi-levitational principles to create 3D cardiac in vitro models in space. With this technique, they aim to both harness and study the effects of the unique environmental conditions of space, such as microgravity and cosmic radiation, on their in vitro models.

Apart from enabling ultra-high fidelity levitational approaches, thanks to microgravity, generation of these 3D in-vitro models in space allows the researchers to directly study pathophysiological conditions that are otherwise harder to achieve on Earth. One prominent example of this is accelerated ageing, which is what Ezgi and her colleagues are starting with, that might also be highly relevant for deep-space manned missions!