Space biology

Synthetic cells can be used as a chassis for biological and biomedical experiments under the conditions of space flight: performing reliable RNA and protein production and formation of drug particles will be crucial for establishing human presence on the Moon, Mars colony and for maintaining the health of people and animals during space flights and colonization. They can be prepared in advance and stored, lyophilised, for a long time.
We have developed synthetic cell epxerimenta payload, with a team of the RockSat-C 18 program. The payload was succesfully launched in a Terrier Orion sounding rocket from NASA Wallops in June 2018, increasing the TRL of this project to 6. This was, to our knowledge, the first time cell-free protein expression experiment was performed under spaceflight conditions.

Synthetic minimal cells have been proposed as a possible tool for biomanufacturing during long-term space missions and on extraterrestrial colonies, as well as a tool for future terraforming efforts. Synthetic minimal cells are bioreactors built specifically to mimic certain aspects of cellular processes, by reconstituting specific genetic pathways, encapsulated within a biomimic membrane. Thus, synthetic minimal cell technology combines most advantages of classical in vitro studies, with added capabilities, including spatial interactions, and interactions between many scaffolded and encapsulated proteins at once.
Traditionally, the information contained in the genetic material can travel only as far and as fast as the mass of the nucleic acids being duplicated during cell division. In the case of synthetic cells, since their autonomous reproduction is unnecessary, once a winning formula for a particular synthetic cell is discovered locally, it can simply be transmitted as digital information riding on optical fibers or radio waves at high speed (and using digital compression makes high bit rates and practically zero error rates feasible with currently available apparatus). Such information can be reduced back to synthetic cells anywhere with a synthetic cell generating apparatus ‐ be it in another country, spaceship or planet.

Our work focuses on developing mission architecture: preparation, storage and experimental conditions compatible with various flight scenarios. We are building syntetic cells to model various natural processes, to study elements of biology under the conditions of spaceflight. The primary goal of this research is to gather information about how natural terrestrial organisms behave under space flight conditions, for the benefit of designing human space exploration strategies. The other goal of this research is to help refine physicochemical boundaries for biochemistry as we know it, to aid in designing life detection systems.

All of this work is done in collaboration with Aaron Engelhart.