#95: 🚀 Will We Find The Cure For Cancer In Space?
#95: 🚀 Will We Find The Cure For Cancer In Space?
Scientists are betting the unique conditions in space will unlock weaknesses in cancer & create new molecules
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Hey Friends,
In June I went to the D3COD1NG the future of women conference in London and one of the most popular talks was about the artificial womb.
The artificial womb would allow for extracorporeal pregnancy, which would be a game changer for reproductive freedom and flexibility for women.
Artificial wombs would also help premature babies have better odds of better health and survival.
They could also allow same-sex couples, single men, or women unable to carry their own children to have children.
The topic that is catapluting the artificial womb as an exciting development is that artificial wombs would also be absolutely necessary for long intergalactic exploration.
And because of the requirement for space travel, artificial womb research has received significant funding.
Space is trending. It’s the final frontier and we have several billionaires working to get to space.
Hitching a ride on this trend could lead to significant advancements healthcare, biotech and biology.
💬 In this note:
🚀 Will We Find The Cure For Cancer In Space?
📚 Over the Edge of the World
⚡️ Bears Hunting Salmon
🚀 Will We Find The Cure For Cancer In Space?
In collaboration with NASA and Space Tango, Catriona Jamieson, a hematologist and director of the Sanford Stem Cell Institute at the University of California, San Diego, has sent bone marrow (stem cells) into space to see what happened.
On the first space mission, they found that the stem cells get exhausted in space.
They go crazy, hyper proliferate, and then lose their capacity to go to sleep.
They are totally wired and lose their functional potential.
Dr. Jamieson repeated the experiment with bone marrow from different aged donors, and compared the results to the control samples back on Earth.
They found that all of the cells aged too quickly.
All of the bone marrow cells shortened their telomeres, and started to show a stress response.
This means that on space missions longer than 30 days, astronauts will age too quickly.
Cancer in Space
The team also sent tumor organoids to space.
They sent organoids for colorectal cancer, leukemia and triple-negative breast cancer.
The results they discovered were concerning.
Tumor cells grew at triple the speed when compared to the control cells on earth.
On earth, a comparable rate of growth of the same cancer cells would take 1 to 10 years depending on the type of cancer.
Jamieson’s team however created a molecule that they are calling a “cancer kill switch.”
The drug is called Rebecsinib and when tested in space, it successfully worked against triple-negative breast cancer organoids.
They repeated the experiment again with the Axiom-3 launch, and it worked.
Repeated success.
The Cancer Moonshot
Now the team is preparing for the launch of Axiom-4.
They plan to send cancer cells from patients with metastatic cancer, and will also send what they believe is feeding the cancer – our own stem cells.
The team believes that our normal stem cells are being recruited to the cancer thinking it’s an injury and trying to fix it.
But, instead of defeating the cancer, the stem cells are feeding it.
Jamieson’s team thinks that microgravity is the element that is leading to these results.
They believe that in microgravity, the cells in the organoid come away from each other and the cellular matrix is not as stiff.
This allows the cancer stem cells to clone themselves because nothing is restricting them.
Jamieson and her team view space as an accelerant for understanding essential human biology, like normal stem cell aging or cancer evolution under conditions of stress.
Space recapitulates stress in a way that compresses the time frame needed for studies.
In space, you are able to see effects faster.
Catriona Jamieson’s team is the first to use space to develop a drug to treat cancer.
She has gotten feedback that “it’s too expensive to develop drugs in space” however, the experiments she has conducted so far have saved money.
The biggest loss is that right now, they cannot get the payload back.
Sierra Space is launching the Dream Chaser missions, which are the first space planes that will launch on a rocket, and then land on a runway that takes a 737.
These missions are vital for scientists to get their samples back from space to evaluate in the lab.
In 2026, Axiom Space plans to open the world’s first commercial space station. It will be used to help develop cellular therapies, biologics and small molecules that fight against cancer and other diseases.
This space station will allow for development in space and enable the return to earth with the products.
It will be a new era for drug development.
Want to read more about biotech in space?? Check out Nina’s Notes #57: Biology in Outer Space.
📚 Book of the Week
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen
Rating: ★★★★★
This week’s Book of the Week was a reader recommendation!. Thanks Lance for the recommendation!
This book is a meticulously researched account of Ferdinand Magellan's daring expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
Author Laurence Bergreen masterfully captures the harrowing and often brutal journey of Magellan and his crew, detailing the challenges they faced from mutiny, starvation, and treacherous seas to encounters with indigenous peoples.
I was motivated to read this book because it’s a rich historical narrative, with insights into life in the 16th-century, when Portugal and Spain were world superpowers.
The tales from the Amazon recounted in the book, specifically the welcome parties the sailors would arrive to are scenes from Dionysus’s time.
Pick this one up if you are a history enthusiast and looking for insights into one of the most significant and perilous voyages in human history.
⚡️ Check This Out
A solar powered livestream of brown bears hunting salmon in Alaska’s Katmai National Park.
This is a truly incredible unedited nature livestream provided by the National Park Service and Explore.org.
The sound of the rushing water over the falls is very zen.
Sometimes when I check in on them, there are SO MANY BEARS.
You may get to see bear cubs, belly flops in the river and watch them catch salmon midair as they try to swim upstream.
Addicted.
This was a reader recommendation too! Thanks Ashlyy for asking me to Check This Out!
Edited by Wright Time Publishing