SpaceX’s 20th commercial resupply service mission for NASA not only carried food and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) but also 1DROP's medical equipment. Together with its new partner, the ISS National Lab, they will launch the first experiment of capillary-driven microfluidics in space.
1DROP Diagnostics, a Neuchatel based startup dedicated to enabling precision medicine through non-invasive diagnostic tests, developed 1DROP a portable medical diagnostics device currently capable of detecting biomarkers of cardiovascular health, liver and kidney function from a single drop of a sample with laboratory quality results.
The startup recently announced its partnership with the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory (ISS National Lab) managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), to collaborate on lab on a chip technology for medical diagnostics on the International Space Station. This will be the first experiment of capillary-driven microfluidics in space. The mission will demonstrate the capillary flow control in microstructures, particle focusing, plasma separation, and will be quantified using fluorescent biochemical reactions. SpaceX’s 20th commercial resupply service mission (SpaceX CRS-20) for NASA, launched on Friday, carried 1DROP devices to the International Space Station.
Luc Gervais, Founder and CEO of 1DROP commented: "The ISS and space are the ultimate remote setting to demonstrate medical diagnostics. If 1DROP is suited to assess the health of astronauts in space, it's suited to assess people’s health everywhere on earth. We are also currently developing 1DROP for long-duration space missions to Mars."
(Press release / RAN)
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