(Yicai) Sept. 22 -- CAS Space Technology and Guangzhou Laboratory have teamed up on space biomedicine to jointly develop a space pharmaceutical payload, aiming to conduct crystallization experiments on protein and small molecule drugs and to accumulate a technical foundation for future orbital-level, long-term experiments, Yicai learned from exclusive sources.

Their medical payload will be used to research and develop new drugs for major diseases, such as lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases. It will take CAS Space’s Li Hong-2 reusable spacecraft to complete suborbital flight verification in the first quarter of next year to explore the development of new drugs in a microgravity environment and answer “questions of life” in space.

Space biomedicine uses the unique microgravity and special radiation environment in space to conduct biomedical research and preparation of drugs that are difficult or even impossible to achieve in ground laboratories. Its core advantages are growing higher-quality protein crystals to assist in the molecular design of new drugs, more realistic human disease models to improve drug screening, and quick stimulation of human degenerative diseases and search for therapeutic targets.

“Space biomedicine is not a new topic,” Wang Yingcheng, executive vice president of the CAS Space Technology Innovation Research Institute, told Yicai in an interview. “It was mainly research-oriented, but now has reached a critical point of industrialization”

The combination of commercial aerospace and biomedicine requires a high level of radiofrequency to support the research, development, manufacturing, and evolution of space biomedicine, and demands low costs for commercialization, Wang noted.

Compared with ground experiments, space biomedicine experiments cost more and are harder to reproduce and validate. The expansion of commercial aerospace production capacity has brought new development opportunities for the industrialization of this field.

The core objective of the cooperation with Guangzhou Lab is to jointly develop space pharmaceutical payloads, aiming to build the ability to conduct crystallization experiments on protein and small-molecule drugs and to accumulate a technical foundation for future orbital-level long-term experiments, Wang said.

Founded in 2021, Guangzhou Lab is led by Zhong Nanshan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering. It focuses on respiratory diseases and their prevention and control.

Guangzhou Lab is an important part of the national strategic scientific and technological strength and a core source of original innovation, major scientific and technological breakthroughs, and achievement transformation in biomedicine in Guangdong province. Its cooperation with CAS Space is mainly carried out by a team led by researcher Xu Qiang.

In the partnership, Guangzhou Lab raises scientific questions about drug crystallization, handles experimental plans, samples, ground controls, and result analysis, and translates mature biopharmaceutical automation functions and in-situ observation capabilities into payload requirements, Xu told Yicai in an interview. CAS Space is responsible for the space platform, environmental conditions, system interfaces, launch and return, and mission organization. They jointly conduct payload engineering design.

The global space pharmaceutical field is still in the early stage, with more scientific research projects than large-scale commercial products, Wang noted. Access, returns, costs, and regulatory mechanisms are still being improved. Several verifiable developments have emerged internationally, demonstrating scientific value and engineering feasibility, but the commercial value of specific drugs and tasks still needs verification.

CAS Space’s future layout in space biomedicine is to create a space-ground collaborative production environment and build a long-term, in-orbit manufacturing base from ground experiments to suborbital flights, low Earth orbit, and experimental modules, Yicai learned.

CAS Space is a leading commercial aerospace enterprise under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, mainly engaged in researching, developing, producing, and launching medium and large commercial carrier rockets. It is exploring new forms of the space economy, such as space manufacturing, space science experiments, and space tourism.

Editor: Futura Costaglione