This is Not the Time to Cut Space-enabled Medical Research
LambdaVision’s tiny protein-based retinal implant. The implant is the small purple dot, which is about the size of a paper punch.
Media Credit: LambdaVision
By Nicole Wagner
July 7, 2025
This piece, originally published in SpaceNews on July 2, 2025, is part of our Forging the Path series in which CASIS® experts and partners share knowledge and insight on managing a national lab in space.
Nicole Wagner is President and CEO of LambdaVision. She obtained her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of Connecticut in 2013. During the course of her Ph.D. research, she spent her graduate career working on optimizing light-activated proteins for applications in devices, and she played a critical role in the proof-of-concept experiments which helped to found LambdaVision.
Her accolades include the Connecticut Technology Council’s Women of Innovation Award and the 2023 NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal. Dr. Wagner serves on the Board of Directors of the New England Women in Science Executives’ Club, the Connecticut Technology Council, the American Society for Gravitation and Space Research, as well as the ISS National Lab User Advisory Committee(Abbreviation: UAC) A committee that provides CASIS with user input and perspective about the management of ISS National Lab resources. as the Chair of the Applied R&D Subcommittee. The views expressed are those of Wagner.
Research that leverages space to develop treatments for blindness, cancer, and Parkison’s disease is jeopardized by the $6.1 billion NASA budget cuts recently announced for 2026 by President Trump. The cuts to the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station), forecasted to be $508 million, halt space research and development momentum, discourage investors, impede growth of the space manufacturing economy and supply chains, threaten the loss of specialized space talent and expertise and jeopardize the United States’ leadership position in space-based life science research. These cuts and their consequences are contrary to the administration’s stated commitment to support American medical and pharmaceutical research along with advanced manufacturing, and they ought to be reversed.
Medical research in low Earth orbit(Abbreviation: LEO) The orbit around the Earth that extends up to an altitude of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from Earth’s surface. The International Space Station’s orbit is in LEO, at an altitude of approximately 250 miles. (LEO) is not science fiction — for over 20 years, the ISS has been growing a life science research pipeline to benefit people on Earth. The ISS research and advanced manufacturing to support it have contributed to more than 400 peer-reviewed journal articles and helped support Merck’s Keytruda research to benefit cancer patients, showcasing the advantages of crystallizing valuable protein-based medicines in microgravityThe condition of perceived weightlessness created when an object is in free fall, for example when an object is in orbital motion. Microgravity alters many observable phenomena within the physical and life sciences, allowing scientists to study things in ways not possible on Earth. The International Space Station provides access to a persistent microgravity environment.. The unique environment created by the lack of gravity in LEO allows for research and production that is impossible on Earth.
The benefits of space-enabled healthcare are immense. For example, the artificial retina developed by my company, LambdaVision, was one of the first technologies evaluated on the ISS that has potential for clinical use. Space offers a scalable solution for LambdaVision in its efforts to restore sight to those with retinal degenerative diseases, affecting over 50 million people worldwide and representing a multi-billion-dollar market. The lack of gravity in LEO allows us to produce our artificial retina with higher quality and greater uniformity when compared to films made on Earth. Further, our research, which was conducted by partnering with Space Tango in 9 missions to the ISS, has established microgravity manufacturing processes, machine learning and scaling, quality control methods and laboratory techniques that will enable a range of companies and industries to leverage commercial LEO destinations to benefit humanity. Demonstrating the significant potential of this research, space startups have raised nearly $2.4 billion following their ISS-based research.
Other companies, such as Eli Lilly and its implementation partner, Redwire Space, are currently leveraging the ISS to develop advanced treatments for chronic diseases, oncologic and immunologic diseases and cardiovascular disease. Bristol-Myers Squibb is developing novel bone disease treatments in space, and the National Stem Cell Foundation is studying 3D brain organoids derived from patients with Parkinson’s disease in microgravity to observe disease progression more rapidly with the aim of identifying potential biomarkers for early diagnosis and therapeutic targets.
The space-enabled healthcare market is expected to grow to between $10-20 billion by 2035, but this might not be possible if the foundations of today’s research are rocked. A new report values the space industry at $944 billion by 2033. But the $6.1 billion budget cuts to NASA reduce U.S. astronaut presence, research cadence and access for private research — undermining America’s return on 20 years of investment in growing the commercial LEO economy.
According to recent reports, the reduced ISS budget is expected to result in fewer flight opportunities for research payloads to the ISS, reducing them from five to just three per year. This reduction represents a significant challenge, as all the companies currently developing research in space are entirely dependent on NASA’s ISS cargo missions to deliver our research and development payloads. Without consistent ISS flight access, research timelines may slip, investor confidence could decline, and the viability of space-based development efforts may be put at risk, as a costly and disruptive research gap is inevitable.
We fully support the administration’s vision for a robust commercial LEO economy, but new LEO destinations remain years away — leaving the research community without access to space when the ISS is expected to be decommissioned in 2030. Budget cuts jeopardize the emerging ecosystem of space startups building the future of space medical research and manufacturing during this transition period. The proposed funding cuts threaten this transition and the potential commercialization of life-changing therapies that require lab space in LEO for testing and development. Moreover, these cuts will strain an already limited and specialized workforce further threatening innovation.
In this way, the reduced ISS budget directly undermines the administration’s own National Space Policy which calls for “a robust, innovative, and competitive commercial space sector… the source of continued progress and sustained United States leadership in space.”
Advancing research in space is a reality that can change lives and improve healthcare treatments for our loved ones. On the current trajectory, this generation of small space companies and entrepreneurs, their customers and their investors are at risk. We face the loss not only of specialized space scientists and engineers, but also of life-changing treatments for patients living with blindness, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. When government support is pulled midstream, it is patients — not just programs — who pay the ultimate price.
Collectively, we must champion the benefit of LEO research, support the space-based economy and encourage a strong transition to commercial LEO destinations. That means restoring ISS research funding, protecting flight access for scientific payloads and reinforcing policies that align with our national goals in biotechnology and advanced manufacturing. We must fight the uncertainty in Washington to achieve a strong space-based ecosystem where research and innovation can flourish.