Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
a new generation of laboratories circumambulation earth in space can provide hope for motor neuron disease (MND), scientists are becoming increasingly optimistic that they may hold the key to unlocking a cure for the disease.
With microgravity and cosmic radiation creating conditions that are impossible to replicate on Earth, space is rapidly emerging as a new frontier for drug discovery and development, yielding new insights and breakthroughs that would otherwise be out of reach.
Pharmaceutical giants are already pouring resources into building such laboratories, while researchers have begun testing on the International Space Station.
Companies like Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly have used before to the ISS for research into drug development, while companies like Varda Space Industries are building unmanned “factories” in space that are sent into orbit, manufacture drugs and then brought back down.
Development is a key element of this year Stephen Hawking The memorial lecture will be given at the Motor Neurone Disease Association’s annual symposium in San Diego in December. It will be delivered by Professor Alison Muotri of the University of California, a neuroscientist and stem cell biologist whose work focuses on modeling human disease in brain organoids – a type of living model of the human brain used in the laboratory.
These tiny, three-dimensional clusters of brain cells – no larger than a grain of sand – mimic the way neurons connect and communicate, providing a powerful tool for studying brain development. However, these organoids cannot naturally mimic aging, which is an important factor in neurodegenerative conditions such as motor neuron disease.
Professor Muotri’s research tackles this limitation by exploiting a phenomenon called space-induced neural aging, where microgravity accelerates cellular aging. In his lecture, he will explore how this discovery opens up new possibilities for using organoids to model MND, potentially unlocking insights that could bring scientists closer to effective treatments.
He told Wire He believes it is “very likely” that a cure for the disease could be discovered through work done in space laboratories.
“Space can accelerate the aging of human brain cells, making research time limited in practical terms,” he said.
“At the moment, we do not have an age-relevant human model for MND and this strategy could potentially help.”
MND is a progressive condition that damages the nerves that control muscles, causing weakness, cramps, difficulty speaking and swallowing. About one in ten cases is hereditary, but most are not. There is no cure, and survival rates vary – Stephen Hawking lived for decades after his diagnosis – many patients die within a few years, with one third within the first year and more than half within two.
Nerve cells cannot regenerate once damaged, so to understand MND, scientists rely on aging and diseased brain organoids, which reveal how the condition develops inside the human brain and, importantly, how it might one day be treated.
Due to the immense levels of cosmic radiation in space, any living thing that humans place in orbit or beyond experiences an accelerated aging process due to rapid damage to DNA strands.
Space can fast-forward decades of wear and tear to just a few days, making cells that race through time look like cells that are 40‑ or 50‑ years old.
It is hoped this will lead to a better understanding of cell degradation, how MND affects this process, and therefore how it can be treated effectively.