British space startup launches longevity laboratory into orbit

Space has become The next frontier in longevity research.

A British startup has just launched autonomous chemistry experiments in orbit, hoping that zero gravity data will shed light on a group of disease-causing proteins that are difficult to study on Earth. But first they need to verify that their independent laboratory will work in space.

A Mass Balance grapefruit-sized device containing chemicals, sensors and controls to keep the chemicals working was launched aboard a SpaceX tanker on Tuesday morning. The experiment, housed in a 10-centimeter (4-inch) diameter chamber made by Austrian company Tumbleweed, will orbit Earth for two months, automatically measuring and sending back data on how living cells grow, interact and function under weak gravity.

It’s the first test of a system that the company hopes will produce higher-quality data that can’t be obtained on Earth, where stronger gravity introduces effects such as convection, through which heat flows, and deposition, where heavier compounds sink, clouding the data collection process.

“When you take away gravity, a lot of weird and wonderful things happen, some of which will be of great value to the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries,” says Toby Cole, co-founder and CEO of Mass Balance, in an interview. “It sounds strange today, but the goal is to make space boring, reliable, and just another research environment.”

He says this research environment could be crucial for imaging disordered proteins responsible for age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and some cancers.

On Earth, these proteins are constantly changing, making them difficult to image. This creates a gap in training data for life science models like Google’s AlphaFold, leaving them unable to predict how disordered proteins will behave and respond to drugs.

But in space, scientists He believes Some disordered disease-causing proteins may be easier to study and analyze. The connection plans to generate data by running tests on disordered proteins under microgravity and use it to train an AI model adapter that fills in the gaps — where the model, data licensing, and data access increase his company’s revenue.

For now, the company is only testing its operating system and capturing data. Tuesday’s mission will take a synthetic biocatalyst into space, which will break down another chemical compound. The platform will monitor the process using light to ensure that the chemical reaction is occurring as planned.

Several other biotech startups are trying to develop orbital laboratories. In May, British company BioOrbit launched a test unit to grow ultra-pure, stable crystals that can be turned into injectable cancer drugs, while US-owned Varda Space Industries is similarly working on processing pharmaceuticals under microgravity. Unlike those two companies, Mass Balance is not trying to return its system to Earth intact, which would save it some of the greater engineering challenges of ensuring it can withstand the extreme heat and stress that satellites experience as they return through Earth’s atmosphere.

“Microgravity is a new, underutilized tool,” Cole says.