Pharmaceutical Research Enabled Through Microgravity: Perspectives on the Use of the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory

Abstract

The International Space Station (ISS) is a marvel of international partnership and engineering. With more than 10 years of assembly led by five space agencies representing 15 countries, the ISS has now been operating and supporting a continuous human presence in space for nearly 20 years, hosting more than 200 people from 18 countries. In addition to serving as a crewed spacecraft and satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO), the ISS is a one-of-a-kind platform for research that takes advantage of the unique space environment to accelerate discovery and explore human limits (1). Research on the ISS helps NASA and international partners reduce the risk of human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit—but it also enables biomedical discovery with direct application to technologies and therapeutics that impact life on Earth. The vision to leverage space for Earth-based benefits was realized when the U.S. Congress designated the ISS as a U.S. National Laboratory in 2005, allowing for increased utilization of the ISS by a broad range of users focused on Earth-based benefits (Fig. 1). In this commentary, we briefly summarize how the ISS and its predecessors paved the way for drug discovery in space, discuss how the ISS National Laboratory is engaged in expanding this research, and provide a perspective on the future industrialization of space to improve medical innovation and drug discovery that benefits life on Earth. We focus on three examples to illustrate the benefits of in-orbit pharmaceutical research: rodent research, tissue chips, and macromolecular crystal growth.