Author: Lisa Peacocke
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Dr Sarah Kessans – Launching a space lab into orbit
Dr Sarah Kessans, a lecturer in the University of Canterbury’s School of Product Design, is passionate about growing stuff in space, ultimately food, fuel and pharmaceuticals to benefit society. Dr Kessans received $200,000 of 2019 Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge (SfTI) Seed Project Funding to develop a space biology laboratory to work towards…
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Sarah Kessans: proteins in space
Sarah Kessans started her academic career studying plants; now the self-confessed ‘space geek’ is a synthetic biologist trying to build New Zealand’s role in the global space economy. Her research takes place on board 10cm3 nano-satellites and aims to understand how protein crystals grow in microgravity. This knowledge can then be used here on Earth…
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TEDxChristchurch: How to eat ketchup on Mars
Dr Sarah Kessans is a US-born New Zealand scientist and biochemist, a multi-national champion in rowing and was in the top 50 applicants—out of over 18,000—in the NASA astronaut programme. She’s earned degrees in plant and molecular biologies, worked on a plant-based HIV vaccine, and is now working at the cutting edge of synthetic biology…