W.T. McLamb, D. Platt
Low Earth Orbit Biosciences,
United States
Keywords: biomanufacturing, bioreactor, scalable
Summary:
Low Earth Orbit Biosciences offers a fast-to-flight, commercial “Lab-to-LEO” alternative for biomanufacturing research and development (R&D) on the ISS U.S. National Laboratory (ISSNL) and for future commercial LEO destinations that will effectively optimize the use of constrained resources through modular integration and implementation of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) devices, hardware pre-deployment, initiation-on-demand, and iteration concepts. The proposed effort will develop and integrate a hardware and software technology platform for testing and on-orbit qualification on the ISS U.S. National Laboratory (ISSNL) to address product technology gaps and facilitate applied R&D efforts in stem cell biomanufacturing and regenerative medicine. The user communities of NASA, government agencies and commercial industry have acknowledged the demand for capabilities that allow for scalable, reproducible, iterative, on-demand, and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-compliant cell and tissue cultures in microgravity that would accelerate advancements and de-risk goals in fundamental and applied research and exploration. A primary focus of Low Earth Orbit Biosciences is to address these critical market needs. This endeavor incorporates ground-proven, automated technologies to demonstrate a multi-function, low-cost, customizable, and scalable, research and development platform for on-orbit biomanufacturing and regenerative medicine that will expand the capabilities for iterative, human cell and tissue culture research and development on the ISSNL and provide a novel and sustainable technology platform for growth of the commercial LEO economy that supports clinically relevant terrestrial applications.