Research

Developing platforms for biological research in microgravity

Contracting Organisation: University of Canterbury

Science Leader: Dr Sarah Kessans

Funding (GST excl): $9,870,048

Funding Year: 2023

Contract Start Date: 1 October 2023

Term: 5 years

Public Statement

As 1 of only 12 space-faring nations, NZ is uniquely placed to leverage its domestic launch services to develop a world-leading space ecosystem. Hundreds of biological experiments are conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) each year, with studies ranging from human physiology and molecular biology, to microbiology and plant biology. These discoveries have translated directly into clinical biomedical applications, new drug development, and sustainable solutions for primary industries. Microgravity protein crystallisation is an increasingly valuable tool for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, with the majority of crystals grown in microgravity exhibiting superior quality over control experiments conducted on Earth. Despite the significant value microgravity experimentation can provide to the global USD 1.1B protein crystallisation industry, executing microgravity crystallisation is currently orders of magnitude more challenging than analogous experiments on Earth, with costs and extended experimentation timelines cited as leading reasons for preventing most potential clients from utilising microgravity.

To address these challenges, we will build upon our successful protein crystallisation prototype development develop fully-automated, high-throughput crystallisation facilities. Our partnership with leading commercial microgravity platform developer Axiom Space will ensure regular, frequent, and cost-effective missions to both the ISS in the near term and the first commercial space station from 2025 to enable efficient, streamlined services to pharmaceutical and academic/government research customers. Our programme will validate the designs of our hardware and software systems, provide critical flight heritage for our commercial modules, and lay the groundwork for implementation of long-term commercial platforms on Axiom Station. We will use the technology, partnerships, and processes developed in this programme to establish a competitive commercial microgravity research industry in New Zealand at the interface between the trillion-dollar global pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors.

The UC team plans to work in partnership with leading commercial microgravity platform developer Axiom Space to ensure regular, frequent, and cost-effective missions to both the International Space Station in the near term, and the first commercial space station from 2025, to enable efficient, streamlined services to pharmaceutical, academic and government research customers.

The research team will be supported by an industry advisory board composed of key Aotearoa New Zealand stakeholders in robotics, data analytics and viticulture.