Technavance Insights

In the winter of 2023, a researcher asked us something that would open up a whole new set of research questions: could we engineer a lower body negative pressure (LBNP) chamber that fits inside an MRI bore? Our first design, an aluminum gantry that hovered over the MRI bed, didn't survive a meeting with an experienced MRI physicist. Here's how we went from aluminum to a modular, all-plastic chamber, now installed in MRI scanners across North America and Europe.

Technavance joined the 87th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign, supporting microgravity research led by Dr. Ana Diaz Artiles. Our custom LBNP chamber operated through 30 parabolas per flight, and all three team members—Nathan, Michelle, and Curtis—flew. We’ll return in April 2026 as the research continues into cardiovascular and ocular responses to microgravity.