Unique conditions in space could allow for experiments and breakthroughs in the search for cures to some of the Earth’s most devastating conditions
Laboratories in space could ‘very likely’ find a cure for motor neurone disease which claimed the lives of Stephen Hawking and rugby legend Rob Burrow, experts believe.
The unique conditions allow for experiments and potential breakthroughs in the search for cures to some of the Earth’s most devastating conditions.
Scientists believe motor neurone disease could be the first currently incurable diseases tackled in orbit. Space can speed up the aging of cells for research – recreating the wear and tear of decades of life in a matter of days. That will allow boffins to study cells’ behaviour as if they hail from someone in their 40s or 50s.
Scientists have already performed experiments on the International Space Station – aka ISS – 250 miles above the planet and pharmaceutical giants are investing in projects to build labs in orbit.
Professor Clive Svensden, executive director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in the US, is leading research efforts to grow mini brains in space to help find a cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis research – the most common type of motor neurone disease.
The Brit-born Cambridge graduate uses induced pluripotent stem cells which can be converted in a lab to perform as if they came from a brain.
He said: “In the last four or five years I have got involved with SpaceX and some companies that are sending cells to the ISS.
“The idea was that if we grew them in with microgravity they would automatically form better cultures. We made them in space with the astronauts and they made a beautiful suspension.
“We have a paper coming out soon showing that you can manufacture induced pluripotent stem cells in space and they go into suspension in a much different way and grow very efficiently.
“We’re now testing those on Earth. We brought them back to see if there’s any long-term effects of manufacturing in space.”
Doing the work in space allows brains to age from the brutal radiation and lack of gravity to imitate sick cells found in patients.
“There’s a yin and yang in space,” Prof Svendsen said. “The yin is that maybe we can manufacture cells better and the mission we have now – we have cells on the space station right now and are waiting for astronauts to go up – is what happens when you try and make brain tissue when you are not constrained by gravity.
“A lot of people are doing that and the idea is 3D printing like in Westworld. It’s remarkable. Biology changes completely when you don’t have gravity.
“But the yang is that astronauts have all sorts of weird side effects from microgravity which is basically premature aging, like their bones becoming more brittle.”
The professor hopes space labs will lead to treatment breakthroughs for motor neurone disease which he hopes could be the first condition primarily cured in orbit.
Professor Alysson Muotri, of the University of California, San Diego, US, will chart how space has become the new frontier for research when he delivers the Stephen Hawking Memorial Lecture at the Motor Neurone Disease Association annual symposium in December.
The Brazilian geneticist said he thinks it ‘very likely’ that a cure for the disease could be found in space.
He said space ‘can accelerate’ the aging and deterioration of human brain cells – a process called senescence – ‘compressing the research time into practical terms’.
“Right now we do not have an age-relevant human model for motor neurone disease and this strategy can likely help,” he said.
The condition has claimed the lives of a host of big names including theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author Professor Hawking who died in 2018 aged 76, and Great Britain, England and Leeds Rhinos rugby league star Burrow, who perished last year aged 41 after a five-year battle.
Other victims include James Bond actor David Niven, Leeds United and England manager Don Revie, Scotland rugby union ace Doddie Weir, singer Roberta Flack, blues music veteran Lead Belly, legendary jazz bassist Charles Mingus and 2008 Portsmouth FA Cup winner Papa Bouba Diop.
England 2003 rugby union World Cup winner Lewis Moody, 47, former national team captain Ed Slater, 37, and Sunderland and Ipswich Town footballer Marcus Stewart, 53, are among around 5,000 people in the UK believed to be currently battling the condition.