Axonis and Encapsulate Awarded 2019 Technology in Space Prize from Boeing and the ISS National Lab
NASA astronaut Christina Koch (top center) conducts a spacewalk at the Port-6 (P6) truss structure work site to upgrade International Space Station power systems.
Media Credit: NASA
October 25, 2019 • By Sven Eenmaa, Director of Investment and Economic Analysis for the ISS National Lab
Last night, the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station) U.S. National Laboratory and Boeing [NYSE: BA] announced the 2019 awardees of their annual “Technology in Space PrizeA prize that provides grant funding for business startups participating in the MassChallenge startup accelerator program to conduct innovative research and technology development utilizing the ISS National Lab. The prize is funded by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, which manages the ISS National Lab, and Boeing.” competition, through which the two organizations jointly provide up to $500,000 in grants to innovative companies participating in the MassChallenge (Boston) startup accelerator.
This year’s awardees include Axonis Inc., which is developing breakthrough neuroregenerative therapies, and Encapsulate LLC, which looks to deliver personalized cancer therapy screening. These companies will now have an opportunity to deploy specific projects to the 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. environment on the ISS National Lab to advance and accelerate their promising research and development toward solutions that address sizable value creation opportunities and needs on Earth.
Since its inception in 2013, the MassChallenge “Technology in Space Prize” has resulted in awards of more than $4.5 million to fund 27 projects from 26 companies across the life and materials sciences as well as technology development. These grants have provided seed funding for the awarded companies and assisted with hardware costs for flight to the ISS National Lab. The roster of past awardees includes innovative startups such as Angiex, LambdaVision, LaunchPad Medical, Ras Labs, MicroQuin, and others.
Brief summaries of the 2019 recipients of the Technology in Space prize are provided below:
Axonis Inc.
Innovative paralysis therapy enabling neuroregeneration
Axonis is a biotechnology company developing a breakthrough neuroregenerative gene therapy for people who have suffered spinal cord injury. The company’s research and development efforts are based on a key scientific discovery that regeneration of central nervous system connections can be achieved by blocking a key enzyme that normally shuts down growth of the nervous system after development is complete. Axonis plans to develop therapies for other currently incurable neurological disorders as well.
The goal of Axonis’ ISS National Lab flight project is to generate a human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived three-dimensional culture model, which will mimic the human central nervous system and brain environment more closely than is achievable using monolayer neural cultures.
Axonis Inc. was awarded a 2019 MassChallenge “Technology in Space Prize” from the ISS National Lab and Boeing. Axonis CSO Joanna Stanicka (center) is pictured here.
Encapsulate LLC
Personalized cancer screening using automated tumor-on-a-chip system
Encapsulate is developing an automated tumor-on-a-chip system that will grow patients’ cancer cells outside the human body and use these cells to screen chemotherapeutic drugs for efficacy, thereby allowing for improved decision-making to select a course of treatment. The company aims to initially target lung and colorectal cancers, given their prevalence, and has tested and validated its proof-of-concept product using human lung and breast cancer cell lines.
The awarded flight project aims to support the preclinical stage of Encapsulate’s product development and optimization, using patient-derived microtumors grown and maintained in microgravity as a tool and base model to evaluate the performance of microtumors grown in the company’s biochips.
Encapsulate LLC was awarded a 2019 MassChallenge “Technology in Space Prize” from the ISS National Lab and Boeing. Encapsulate Co-founder and CEO Armin Rad (second from right), Co-founder and COO Leila Daneshmandi (third from right), and Co-founder and CTO Reza Amin (fourth from right) are pictured here.
We congratulate the 2019 awardees, as well as all of this year’s participants, and thank Boeing and MassChallenge for the continued successful partnership!
To learn more about the ISS National Lab and investment opportunities leveraging the unique environment and capabilities of ISS and 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., please visit: issnationallab.org/investment.