The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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As part of ESA Education's Hands-on programmes, 4 students from Universtity of Minho and University of Porto, devised a cell biology and hypergravity experiment to investigate tendon cell biology in view of developing a new method of repairing tendons.
Musculoskeletal diseases are one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, with tendon injuries being responsible for substantial morbidity, pain and disability, affecting athletes, active working people and the elderly.
After injury, different therapeutic approaches can be used in the clinical setting. These include conservative treatments such as rest, mechanical conditioning, corticosteroids injection, etc. When conservative treatments fail or are not appropriate, surgical intervention is required.
The Achilles experiment aims to combine a bioactive and bioinstructive membrane with hypergravity stimulation to gain a better understanding of tendon cell biology and the potential development of a patch for tendon regeneration applications.