Stem cell research is about to get a boost that’s out of this world. If all goes as planned, the SpaceX CRS-10 mission will blast off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida this weekend to resupply the International Space Station. There also will be something extra in the payload - human adult stem cells.

After more than three years of planning and preparation, and with technical assistance provided by the Center for Applied Space Technology, Abba Zubair, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic stem cell biologist, is finally taking his quest for answers into orbit.

“We know stem cells grow differently using simulated microgravity,” says Dr. Zubair. “Primarily, our focus is to see if microgravity actually can help stem cells to expand faster, so that we can grow more of them to bring back to use for human application.” Here’s Dennis Douda for the Mayo Clinic News Network.