Israeli start-up develops space lab to advance medicines in low gravity
ILTV spoke with the co-founder and CEO of Spacepharma Yossi Yamin to discuss the new technology, and its implications for the scientific community.
By Jerusalem Post Staff, February 16, 2021
Axiom Space Station (photo credit: AXIOM SPACE)
Israeli start-up Spacepharma designed a laboratory able to be used
in microgravity environments, and implemented at lower costs than other
launchers, according to ILTV News.
ILTV spoke with the co-founder and CEO of Sacepharma Yossi Yamin to discuss the new technology, and its implications for the scientific community.
The
Spacepharma CEO said the idea came to him when he was the commander of
the Israeli satellite unit, when he and his colleagues realized liquids
could be sent into orbit and manipulated in low gravity environments to
create medicines, among other things.
Normally
these types of projects could only be afforded by large space agencies
with extensive defense budgets. Spacepharma condensed it to the size of a
milk carton, with business-card sized work spaces to make the project
cost-friendly, efficient and space-saving.
The
benefits of performing these processes in microgravity environments,
according to Yamin, is that it allows the scientists to "detach from
Earth" and its gravity. With any physiochemical reaction, gravity plays a
factor, and Yamin explains that the same experiment performed on Earth
and in space
will have completely different reactions, a mostly untapped avenue that
could provide numerous possibilities and solutions for the medical and
scientific communities.
"Imagine
that someone would tell you that you could fly, without wings. You
think it's a joke, right? But we can run the same reaction in orbit and
get a different result," Yamin explained to ILTV.
The
results could then be converted to create a solid mass with the same
properties, a process which could be used to make advanced medicines.
Spacepharma wants to manufacture medicine among the stars, ILTV Israel News, Feb. 14, 2021
Spacepharma has already
improved antibiotics in ways unproven prior to the tech's
implementation, which could be used to combat future pandemics, and
Yamin says he believes that in time, other advances will be created
among the stars and then brought back down to Earth.
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