Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. News

It sounds crazy, but NASA is seriously growing space crystals to help make better drugs

Dyllan Furness
By

Image used with permission by copyright holder
Crystals grow differently in space than they do on Earth, and astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) have been tasked with finding out why. In a series of experiments, the ISS scientists will try to determine why crystals often have fewer imperfections and bigger sizes when grown in microgravity, research that may help accelerate drug development here on Earth.

In order to efficiently design drugs, chemists must first understand the structure of the proteins the drugs are intended to interact with. The problem is that proteins are tiny and have to be crystallized to reveal their 3D blueprint. By growing higher-quality crystals in space, researchers may be able to unravel the complexities of some of these proteins and adapt their crystal-growing methods to create better blueprints.

Recommended Videos

Scientists are unsure why crystals grow with fewer imperfections in outer space, though most theories attribute the quality to slower growth. One of the ISS experiments (The Effect of Macromolecular Transport on Microgravity Protein Crystallization — or LMM Biophysics 1) will investigate these theories.

Related

The other experiment (Growth Rate Dispersion as a Predictive Indicator for Biological Crystal Samples Where Quality Can be Improved with Microgravity Growth — or LMM Biophysics 3) will try to discern which crystals are best grown in space, since past research has shown that only certain proteins benefit from microgravity.

“Some proteins are like building blocks,” Edward Snell, LMM Biophysics 3 primary investigator, said in a press release. “It’s very easy to stack them. Those are the ones that won’t benefit from microgravity. Others are like jelly beans. When you try and build a nice array of them on the ground, they want to roll away and not be ordered. Those are the ones that benefit from microgravity. What we’re trying to do is distinguish the blocks from the jelly beans.”

By distinguishing blocks from jelly beans and determining why microgravity effects growth, the hope is that these ISS experiments will accelerate drug discovery by allowing for better protein mapping.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Dyllan Furness
Dyllan Furness
Contributor
Dyllan Furness is a freelance writer from Florida. He covers strange science and emerging tech for Digital Trends, focusing…
NASA to send more tourists to International Space Station
The International Space Station.

In this new era of space tourism, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency has already sent four amateur astronauts to the International Space Station in two missions since October. Now, NASA is gearing up for its first such flight, organized by private spaceflight company Axiom using SpaceX hardware, in February 2022.

This week NASA announced its second private mission to the ISS, again using Axiom. Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) is aiming to launch between fall 2022 and late spring 2023.

Read more
NASA picks 3 companies to design private space stations
An illustration of the low-Earth orbit space station planned by Northrop Grumman.

NASA continues its push to commercialize low-Earth orbit, with the announcement of three companies that have been chosen to design private space stations. As the International Space Station ages and approaches retirement, NASA is providing funding for private companies to plan out potential replacements which could take over its research functions.

An illustration of the low-Earth orbit space station planned by Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman

Read more
NASA weighs risk as junk from an old rocket heads toward space station
The International Space Station.

NASA is assessing the potential risk of a piece of space debris that’s been spotted heading toward the International Space Station (ISS).

The space agency said the debris is a piece of an old rocket and may come close to the ISS early on Friday.

Read more