The first Space Biotech.
Space Biology Unlimited is a French biotech company, subsidiary of Space Cargo Unlimited, aiming to approach life science research in Space with disruptive methodologies. Headquartered in Bordeaux, France, Space Biology Unlimited is comprised of a team of 15 people, bringing together multidisciplinary scientists and technical expertise. The team operates from the University of Bordeaux, France and the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.
Rooted in a multidisciplinary team spirit, Space Biology Unlimited has developed a holistic culture for bridging microgravity and applied research. Space Biology Unlimited’s core approach revolves around the notion of “guided evolution” (link to article to be published in December) – the Space environment offers unique conditions that the company’s research team intends to leverage to induce evolutionary processes in living organisms for the development of new and natural variants adapted to the drastic new challenges posed on Earth due to climate change.
Space Biology Unlimited is participating to the NASA commercial ISS initiative in partnership with NanoRacks. Space Biology Unlimited also benefits from a 5 years partnership with CNES and works in partnership with its CADMOS lab (Center for Development and Assistance on Microgravity and Spatial Operations) in Toulouse, France.
“We are thrilled to support Space Biology Unlimited in their audacious adventure”
says Mr. Lionel Suchet, Chief Operating Officer for the CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, France).
“Our collaboration lays the foundation of a new era of partnerships in Europe to explore the future of microbiology research in microgravity.”
This initiative is also actively supported by ESA (European Space Agency).
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“The science behind mission WISE“
• “Exploration of space to achieve scientific breakthroughs” (in Biotechnology Advances)
Living organisms adapt to changing environments using their amazing flexibility to remodel themselves by a process called evolution. Environmental stress causes selective pressure and is associated with genetic and phenotypic shifts for better modifications, maintenance, and functioning of organismal systems…
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“How the space environment influences organisms: an astrobiological perspective and review“
The unique environment of space is characterized by several stress factors, including intense radiation, microgravity, high vacuum and extreme temperatures, among others. These stress conditions individually or in-combination influence genetics and gene regulation and bring potential evolutionary changes in organisms that would not occur under the Earth’s gravity regime (1 × g). Thus, space can be explored to support the emergence of new varieties of microbes and plants, that when selected for, can exhibit increased growth and yield, improved resistance to pathogens, enhanced tolerance to drought, low nutrient and disease, produce new metabolites and others. These properties may be more difficult to achieve using other approaches under 1 × g…