Gravity is the variable

Biology, without gravity’s interference.

Sedimentation, convection and shear affect every experiment run on Earth. Our rotating wall bioreactors reduce those effects in the lab, so a team can test many conditions at a fraction of the cost of a space flight and fly only the samples that worked.

Explore a research partnership See how it works

Or email information@microgravitybioreactors.com

Fig. 1 — Crystal growth1 g vs µg
1 g — EARTH Sedimentation · convection Clustered, irregular crystals µg — MICROGRAVITY No sedimentation · diffusion-led Uniform, ordered lattice
Schematic. With gravity-driven forces reduced, protein molecules join the crystal lattice more slowly and in a more orderly way.
01 — The hidden variable

Every experiment on Earth is run at 1 g.

Gravity is so constant that it rarely appears in a methods section. It still drives forces that change how molecules assemble and how cells grow, and those forces are much weaker in microgravity.

Sedimentation

Denser particles, crystals and cells sink. Crystals cluster and grow unevenly; cells settle onto surfaces instead of organising in three dimensions.

Convection

Density and temperature differences set fluid moving. Those currents disturb crystal growth and carry impurities into the lattice.

Shear stress

Keeping cells suspended on Earth means stirring or pumping. That mechanical stress damages delicate cultures and skews results.

02 — Commercial partnerships

Built with three of Europe’s leading engineering universities.

We develop our bioreactors under signed agreements with university research groups in the UK, Switzerland and the Netherlands, covering engineering, pharmacology and space research.

University of Cambridge
Commercial partnership

University of Cambridge

Department of Engineering and Department of Pharmacology. Four Cambridge doctoral and postdoctoral researchers work alongside our team on a joint enterprise basis.

ETH Zurich
Commercial agreement

ETH Zurich

A commercial agreement covering joint development work with ETH Zurich.

Delft University of Technology
Joint R&D MoU

Delft University of Technology

A Memorandum of Understanding for joint research and development with TU Delft.

GSK
Memorandum of Understanding

We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with GSK to collaborate on joint research in microgravity pharmaceutical science.

03 — What microgravity unlocks

Four areas where removing gravity changes the result.

Protein crystallisation

Better crystals give sharper structural data, which means a clearer view of drug targets and faster structure-based design.

SOURCE — ISS National Laboratory

Biologics formulation

Insulin crystals grown in microgravity have been larger and better ordered in some studies. That is the groundwork for more uniform, concentrated biologic formulations.

SOURCE — Current Stem Cell Reports, 2025

3D tissue and organoids

Without sedimentation, cells form three-dimensional aggregates and express differentiation markers that flat cultures miss.

SOURCE — Morabito et al., 2015

Stem cell research

Microgravity changes the mechanical signalling that governs stem cell fate, which matters for regenerative medicine.

SOURCE — npj Microgravity, 2025
04 — How it works

Screen on the ground. Fly only what’s proven.

Test many versions of a sample in the lab, find the ones that work, and send those to the International Space Station.

  1. 01

    Design many conditions

    Load up to eight vessels at once with different concentrations, buffers or cell lines.

  2. 02

    Rotate the wall

    The vessel turns about a horizontal axis, so cells and crystals stay suspended in the medium instead of settling, and without the shear stress that stirring creates.

  3. 03

    Analyse and rank

    Compare results across every condition and identify the samples that perform best. Repeat and refine as often as you need.

  4. 04

    Fly only what’s proven

    Send the best candidates to the ISS, with ground data behind every sample on board.

Inside the system

EIGHT VESSELS, RUNNING IN PARALLEL 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 ONE CONDITION PER VESSEL · EIGHT CONDITIONS PER RUN ROTATION ABOUT A SINGLE HORIZONTAL AXIS ω ROTATING · SOLID-BODY FLOW Samples held in suspension STATIC CONTROL · 1 g Samples sediment and clump VESSEL VOLUME 50–500 mL RUN LENGTH Up to 21 days ENVIRONMENT Low shear, no stirring MONITORING 9-axis IMU, every run Schematic. Each vessel runs independently, so eight conditions can be tested side by side in one run.

Each vessel is a rotating wall chamber: it turns about a single horizontal axis and the medium turns with it, so samples stay suspended rather than sedimenting, in a low-shear environment. Applications span protein crystallisation and cell and tissue culture.

05 — The economics

A fraction of the cost of a flight, with more evidence before you fly.

Flying an experiment to the ISS can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds once launch, integration and crew time are counted, and each flight gives you one attempt. Screening in our bioreactors first costs a fraction of that, and the flight then carries only your best samples.

~£17,000/kg Launch cost alone to the ISS on Falcon 9 and Dragon, before hardware, integration or crew time SOURCE — NASA Technical Reports Server ($23,300/kg, converted)
From £5,000 Cost per test run, covering eight conditions in parallel Indicative pricing. Contact us for a quote
ComparisonISS aloneScreen first, then fly
Cost per testHundreds of thousands of poundsFrom £5,000 per run
Tests for the budgetOne flight experimentEight conditions per run, repeated as often as needed
Time to iterateWait for the next available launch slotRepeat in the lab within days
What goes to orbitConditions optimised at normal gravitySamples already proven in simulated microgravity

Ground simulation does not replace orbital microgravity. It makes each flight count.

06 — Why it matters

Thirty years of space research has already changed how some medicines are designed and delivered.

Removing gravity-driven forces lets protein molecules join a crystal lattice more slowly and in better order, which is why drug companies keep going back to orbit. Three results from that work explain what is at stake.

THE SCALE OF IT

500 experiments and counting

By 2021, drug companies and academic groups had run more than 500 protein crystal growth experiments on the International Space Station. It is by far the largest single category of research the station has hosted.

SOURCE — NASA
FROM CRYSTAL TO CLINIC

A drug for muscular dystrophy

A JAXA study of a protein linked to Duchenne muscular dystrophy pointed researchers towards a compound called TAS-205. Its safety was verified in 2015, a patient trial finished in 2017, and the team estimates it may halve the rate at which the disease progresses. A Phase 3 trial runs to 2027.

SOURCE — NASA
BETTER DELIVERY

Hours on a drip, or one injection

Antibody drugs do not dissolve easily, so patients often sit through long intravenous infusions. A station experiment grew a more uniform crystalline form of the cancer drug Keytruda, opening the way to giving it as an injection instead, at lower cost.

SOURCE — NASA
Half the atoms in a protein are hydrogen

Finding them needs neutron diffraction, which needs large, well-ordered crystals. Those are the ones gravity makes hardest to grow.

SOURCE — ISS National Lab
Some proteins will not crystallise on Earth at all

Membrane proteins tied to cancer, Alzheimer’s and type 2 diabetes have resisted crystallisation in ground labs, which holds up work on drugs that target them.

SOURCE — ISS National Lab
A fridge is part of the cost of a medicine

Formulations stable at room temperature need no cold chain, so they cost less to ship, keep longer and reach patients in more places.

SOURCE — NASA
07 — Team

The people behind the bioreactors.

Dr Andrew Barton

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER MEng, PhD (Cantab) andrew.barton@microgravitybioreactors.com

Dr Jan Engelkes

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER PhD (Cantab) jan.engelkes@microgravitybioreactors.com

Dr Yang Mei

CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER PhD (Cantab) yang.mei@microgravitybioreactors.com
08 — Work with us

Work with us on your next experiment.

We work with pharmaceutical, biotech and academic teams on crystallisation and cell culture programmes. Tell us what you are working on and we will get back to you.

Or email us directly: information@microgravitybioreactors.com

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