National Stem Cell Foundation

The National Stem Cell Foundation (NSCF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Louisville, Kentucky, that received its IRS tax exemption in September 2005. Alongside funding adult stem cell research generally, running a STEM teacher-training program and advocating for rare-disease research and bone-marrow donor recruitment, NSCF sponsors a specific line of spaceflight research using the International Space Station National Laboratory to study neurodegenerative disease.

Its ISS-sponsored investigations use stem cell-derived brain organoid models -- three-dimensional neuroglial cell cultures grown from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) taken from patients with neurological conditions -- to study neurodegeneration in the absence of gravity, with a focus on Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and primary progressive multiple sclerosis. The foundation runs this program with the Exomedicine Institute, which studies how microgravity affects biological processes relevant to astronaut health, and in partnership with the New York Stem Cell Foundation and the Sanford Stem Cell Institute at UC San Diego.

NSCF-sponsored organoid investigations have flown to the ISS on multiple SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services missions, including CRS-18 in July 2019, CRS-24 in December 2021 and CRS-30 in March 2024, with continued flights through 2024-2025. The foundation reported $2.47 million in revenue in 2024, of which the large majority came from donations, according to its IRS filings. The goal of the program, per the ISS National Lab, is to develop improved diagnostics and new therapeutics for neurodegenerative conditions using microgravity as a research tool unavailable on Earth.