Rhodium Biomanufacturing 02

Efficient and Resilient Biomanufacturing in Variable Gravity – Mission 2

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Efficient and Resilient Biomanufacturing in Variable Gravity – Mission 2 (Rhodium Biomanufacturing 02) continues work to examine how microgravity affects biomanufacturing of therapeutics and nutraceuticals from bacteria and yeast. Microgravity is known to cause changes in cell growth and morphology and metabolic activity in microbes, which can affect biomanufacturing performance. Results could advance concepts of in-orbit servicing, assembly, and biomanufacturing of materials in space for use on future missions.

The following content was provided by Olivia Holzhaus, and is maintained by the ISS Research Integration Office.

Experiment Description

Research Overview

• Using microbes to make goods such as biopolymers, food, and pharmaceuticals in space has been theorized as a possible approach to reduce the substantial economic and energy costs required to transport equipment and consumables from Earth into space and is a potentially less expensive approach than traditional chemical and mechanical techniques.
• The practical viability of space biomanufacturing is an open problem because spaceflight imposes numerous physiological stresses on microbes, affecting growth rates, output responses, and thus potential productivity and scalability; one such stress is reduced gravity level compared to Earth.
• Efficient and Resilient Biomanufacturing in Variable Gravity – Mission 2 (Rhodium Biomanufacturing 02) advances how biomanufacturing a suite of useful therapeutics and nutraceuticals in the space environment may be possible by using different bacteria and yeast species.
• Data collected helps inform future testing parameters and provides proof-of-concept for the feasibility of in-orbit servicing, assembly, and the manufacturing of U.S. assets in space.

Description

Biomanufacturing is the process of using living systems such as microorganisms and cell cultures to produce materials and biomolecules on a commercial scale. Efficient and Resilient Biomanufacturing in Variable Gravity – Mission 2 (Rhodium Biomanufacturing 02) is the second investigation funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further advance biomanufacturing capabilities in a microgravity environment.

In theory, space biomanufacturing may substantially reduce mission costs. However, the practical viability of space biomanufacturing is an open problem because spaceflight imposes numerous physiological stresses on microbes, which impacts growth rates, transcriptional and translational responses, and ultimately potential biomanufacturing output and scale.

To better understand the impact that different levels of gravity have on the potential output and scale of biomanufacturing setups, the investigation addresses fundamental questions about future space biomanufacturing feasibility by quantifying current biomanufacturing performance in space. This quantification is an important step to accomplishing the investigation goal: to optimally biomanufacture a suite of useful therapeutics and nutraceuticals (food sources with extra health benefits) in the space environment using different bacteria and yeast species in a way that is resistant to changes across a gravity continuum. “Optimally” is defined with respect to (1) efficiency – biomanufacturing productivity (yield and titer) compared to anticipated costs (launch and/or operational mass/volume/power/logistics) and (2) resiliency – performance constancy that endures despite harsh, uncertain, and variable space environment conditions, and in particular, different levels of gravity.

As discussed with the first mission, the key barrier to efficient and resilient space biomanufacturing is that some microbes exhibit differential gene expression in fractions of Earth-gravity relative to Earth-based controls. Microgravity alters microbial gene expression, leading to changes in cell growth and cell morphology, including biofilm formation, pathogenicity, and metabolic activity. But the response of microbes to microgravity changes is highly dependent on the taxa. Additionally, an organism’s responses to simulated microgravity vary widely with the type of simulation apparatus used, which means that bioengineering to improve biomanufacturing performance that has been tested in these simulation apparati may be suspect. Further, there are several studies that show a lack of reproducibility of simulated transcriptional responses in actual spaceflight. Even widely tested Escherichia coli might behave very differently in a test apparatus compared to published modeled microgravity and spaceflight experiments under different hardware and environmental conditions.

Therefore, in the second mission, additional microbial species are selected based on results from the initial mission. Testing of the new set of species focuses on microgravity and 1 g. This data provides critical information regarding genetic modification targets prior to the program’s third mission. Results may improve an understanding of space biomanufacturing functions.

Biomanufacturing efficiency is attained through data-driven modeling and quantitative analysis of the effects of low gravity as shown by collected spaceflight data to ascertain feasible growth rate and titer performance targets. Potential functionality losses in space are quantified from the data collected and merged with any previously collected or existing organism flight data that may be limited, noisy, or not focused on biomanufacturing. Optimally, efficient strategies for environment and host conditioning are articulated from all data. Such strategies may, in the future, be tested in terrestrial analogs that replicate space biomanufacturing performance.

The objectives of this investigation are:

1. To supplement baseline characterizations of biomanufacturing performance collected during the first mission.

2. To expand the set of identified genetic regulation targets when biomanufacturing in low gravity.

3. To update predictive computational models and physical analogs of biomanufacturing performance across a gravity continuum.

The research outcomes of this investigation increase the understanding of the feasibility of biomanufacturing beyond Earth and facilitates the development of a robust space supply chain.

Applications

Space Applications

Using microbes to produce food, pharmaceuticals, and other materials on long-duration missions may reduce the volume of products that must be brought from Earth. Results from this investigation may advance biomanufacturing capabilities to support future missions.

Earth Applications

The output of biomanufacturing on Earth can be affected by environmental stressors. By providing a better understanding of how microbes adapt and function in space, this investigation may support improvements to biomanufacturing output in stressful environments on Earth.

Operations

Operational Requirements and Protocols

Rhodium Biomanufacturing 02 requires the launch of the six Rhodium Science Chamber 4MLS units and the Rhodium Science TempLog 20iB. The Rhodium Science Chamber 4MLS chamber is capable of supporting all phases of the mission. Chambers are frozen from hardware turnover through ascent.

After arrival at the International Space Station, the chambers are transferred into an onboard ambient stowage location during visiting vehicle unpacking operations. The chambers are thawed and incubated at ambient temperatures for three different lengths of time. During incubation, the Rhodium Science TempLog 20iB monitors environmental temperature. At the completion of each designated incubation time, chambers are transferred back to a freezer for the remainder of the mission. The chambers remain frozen during the remaining time on orbit, through descent and delivery to the research team’s laboratory.