Spaceflight supercharges anti-bacterial viruses thanks to microgravity

Amazing stuff! Good news!

"Viruses that infect bacteria, called phages, evolve different strategies to infect their targets on the International Space Station than they do on the ground, which could help create new treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections.

Researchers found that the phages took longer to infect E.coli in microgravity, and that the viruses developed microgravity-specific mutations, some of which helped them to better cling onto bacterial receptors.

Once they returned to earth, they were able to kill stubborn strains of E.coli responsible for urinary tract infections that tend to be resistant to bacteriophages."

"... Once the viruses adapted to microgravity by subtly shape-shifting, though, they became even more effective bacteria killers. “A simple microgravity experiment exposes these mutations that have much higher efficacy against pathogens,”  ..."

From the abstract:

"Bacteriophage–host interactions play a fundamental role in shaping microbial ecosystems. While extensively studied on Earth, their behavior in microgravity remains largely unexplored.

Here, we report the dynamics between T7 bacteriophage and Escherichia coli in microgravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Phage activity was initially delayed in microgravity but ultimately successful.

We identified de novo mutations in both phage and bacteria that enhanced fitness in microgravity. Deep mutational scanning of the phage receptor binding domain revealed striking differences in the number, position, and mutational preferences between terrestrial and microgravity conditions, reflecting underlying differences in bacterial adaptation. Combinatorial libraries informed by microgravity selections yielded T7 variants capable of productively infecting uropathogenic E. coli resistant to wild-type T7 under terrestrial conditions. These findings help lay the foundation for future research on the impact of microgravity on phage–host interactions and microbial communities and the terrestrial benefits of this research."

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Spaceflight supercharges viruses’ ability to infect bacteria "Viruses develop tricks to attack bacteria without the help of gravity"

Microgravity reshapes bacteriophage–host coevolution aboard the International Space Station

Fig 1. Experimental design to evaluate microgravity interactions on the ISS.

25 years of humans doing continuous research in space on the International Space Station

Good news! What a remarkable anniversary!

25 years of research in space | MIT Technology Review "MIT astronauts aboard the International Space Station—and the MIT researchers who have sent up experiments—have advanced our understanding of science, space, and the universe."

How India uses mission for own future space plans with a female mission commander (age 65) to dock with the ISS

Amazing stuff! Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary, and the US on board.

The Indian astronaut is flying with a duck as a mascot.

878 days! Russian cosmonaut breaks record for time spent in space on the International Space Station

His a very clever draft dodger/deserter who avoided the Russo-Ukrainian War! His age is reported as 59. Perhaps, Putin the Terrible will even award him with a medal for his achievement! 

Caution: Satire!

878 days! Russian cosmonaut breaks record for time spent in space | Space And Oleg Kononenko's off-Earth tally will go well past 1,000 days, if all goes according to plan.

Mouse embryos successfully grown in space for the first time

Are we getting ready to colonize other planets or the moon? Or are we getting closer to an extended multi generational space Odyssey? 

Happy proliferation in space with minimal risks of overpopulation! (Caution: Satire)

"Highlights

• Mouse 2-cell embryos can develop into blastocysts under microgravity

• Gravity did not affect initial differentiation of mammalian embryos

• Mammals can thrive in space

Summary

Mammalian embryos differentiate into the inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm at the 8–16 cell stage. The ICM forms a single cluster that develops into a single fetus. However, the factors that determine differentiation and single cluster formation are unknown. Here we investigated whether embryos could develop normally without gravity. As the embryos cannot be handled by an untrained astronaut, a new device was developed for this purpose. Using this device, two-cell frozen mouse embryos launched to the International Space Station were thawed and cultured by the astronauts under microgravity for 4 days. The embryos cultured under microgravity conditions developed into blastocysts with normal cell numbers, ICM, trophectoderm, and gene expression profiles similar to those cultured under artificial-1 g control on the International Space Station and ground-1 g control, which clearly demonstrated that gravity had no significant effect on the blastocyst formation and initial differentiation of mammalian embryos."

Mouse embryos successfully grown in space for the first time

Effect of microgravity on mammalian embryo development evaluated at the International Space Station (open access)

Graphical abstract

Ukraine war: Russian cosmonauts on ISS celebrate capture of Luhansk region from space propaganda

I suspect, this photo is doctored by Putin the Terrible! E.g. why would these cosmonauts have this flag on board of the ISS?

The problem here is that the ISS is an international space station jointly used by NASA, Japan, Canada, and Russia. Perhaps, the three Russian cosmonauts ought to be kicke off the space station and Russia is to be denied any further use of ISS.

"Sergei Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev were shown posing with the red, dark blue and light blue separatist flag on board the International Space Station (ISS).
The image was posted by the Russian space agency Roscosmos on the Telegram messaging app. ..."

Ukraine war: Russian cosmonauts celebrate capture of Luhansk region from space | World News | Sky News Russian cosmonauts have been pictured holding up the flag of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic as they celebrated the region's capture by Vladimir Putin's forces in eastern Ukraine.

Pharma Looks to Outer Space to Boost Drug R&D

Recommendable!

"Scientific research in space has thrived over the past decade, but it’s only recently that the pharmaceutical and biotech sector has started getting in on the action, pursuing new ways to study drugs and other medical treatments. Pharma giants including Merck, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, and Sanofi, along with dozens of smaller companies, have all sent experiments to the ISS [International Space Station] to reap the unique benefits of microgravity. Of the 150 or so life science research projects supported in the 2019-2020 fiscal year by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)—a nonprofit that collaborates with NASA to manage the US National Laboratory on the ISS—more than a third have been led by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies ..."

Pharma Looks to Outer Space to Boost Drug R&D | The Scientist Magazine® There are benefits of studying certain biological processes under microgravity, but whether those advantages outweigh the costs of getting experiments off Earth remains to be seen.

ISS: Beim 3D-Druck im Weltraum passiert Erstaunliches

Good news! The last frontier: Manufacturing in space!

"... Mit dem Ceramic Manufacturing Module (CMM) stellten Astronauten auf der Internationalen Raumstation ISS mittels Stereolithographie und vorkeramischen Harzen einen einteiligen Keramik-Turbinen-Blisk im Orbit her, zusammen mit einer Reihe von Materialtest-Abschnitten. ...
Turbinenteile, die auf diese Weise hergestellt werden, dürften eine höhere Festigkeit und geringere Eigenspannungen aufweisen, weil durch die Schwerkraft verursachte Defekte wie Ablagerungen und Zusammensetzungsgradienten beseitigt werden."

ISS: Beim 3D-Druck im Weltraum passiert Erstaunliches - ingenieur.de Erstmals wurden Keramikteile mit einem 3D-Drucker im All hergestellt. Das könnte die Industrie maßgeblich verändern: Denn die Komponenten aus dem All sind ganz anders als die von der Erde.