Sachi Bio Launches Its Largest ADDIS™ Brain Payload Yet Aboard NASA’s SpaceX CRS-35
1,536 human brain organoids modeling Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and frontotemporal dementia fly on SPX-35 to the International Space Station, as the company’s first Nanoligomer™ medicine prepares to enter human trials in ALS
ERIE, Colo., Oct. 13, 2026 — Sachi Bio (Sachi Bioworks, Inc.), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing Nanoligomer™ medicines for neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases, today sent 1,536 human brain organoids to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard NASA’s SpaceX CRS-35 commercial resupply mission. The payload is the company’s largest brain mission to date and the fourth flight of ADDIS™, Sachi’s Accelerated Drug Discovery in Space program.
The organoids, grown at Sachi’s laboratories in Erie, Colorado, model Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) using cells from patient and healthy donors. In orbit they will be treated with Nanoligomer™ medicines directed at seven new gene targets, while four additional targets are tested in matched organoids on Earth.
Each ADDIS™ mission has been larger than the last: 98 organoids on CRS-29 in 2023, nearly 588 on CRS-31, and 770 across brain, heart, liver and kidney models on CRS-34 in May 2026. With today’s launch, Sachi has flown nearly 3,000 human organoids, each paired with matched controls grown on Earth.
Microgravity speeds up the biology of aging and neurodegeneration, compressing changes that take years on Earth into weeks in orbit. Studying human organoids in that environment lets Sachi evaluate many drug candidates, across many targets and donors, in living human tissue far sooner than conventional models allow.
“Every organoid on this flight began as cells given by a real person, and every one is there to answer a question for people who are living with these diseases right now,” said Anushree Chatterjee, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sachi Bio. “Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and FTD are often endured quietly, by patients and by the families who care for them. We are building ADDIS™ to bring them new options sooner.”
The program is already feeding Sachi’s clinical pipeline. NI112, a Nanoligomer™ medicine studied in Sachi’s ALS organoids on Earth and in orbit, has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin a first-in-human Phase 1 trial in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will evaluate single ascending doses of NI112, given by injection under the skin, in up to 40 adults with ALS. The first participants are expected to be dosed in February 2027.
“Four flights ago we sent 98 organoids. Today we sent 1,536, against more targets and more donors than ever,” said Prashant Nagpal, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Sachi Bio. “That scale is what turns a spaceflight experiment into a drug discovery engine, and NI112 entering the clinic shows where that work leads.”
Sachi thanks NASA and its implementation partners, Space Tango and BioServe Space Technologies, whose flight hardware and operations make science in orbit possible. After the mission, the organoids will return to Earth for analysis at Sachi’s Erie laboratories.
About Sachi Bio — Sachi Bioworks, Inc. (Sachi Bio) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company in Erie, Colorado, developing Nanoligomer™ medicines designed to precisely turn down disease-driving genes. Its lead program, NI112, is entering a Phase 1 clinical trial in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Through its ADDIS™ program, Sachi tests drug candidates in human organoid models of the brain, heart, liver and kidney, including NASA-funded experiments aboard the International Space Station, to select medicines in human tissue before they reach patients. Learn more at www.sachibio.com.
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