At the end of August a parcel arrived from outer space for a small Connecticut-based biotech company called LambdaVision. Inside the shoebox-sized package were samples of a protein-based film that the company hopes will one day be the basis of an artificial retina to restore sight to people blinded by age or genetic disease.
The film was created some 420km above Earth, on the International Space Station, where the microgravity environment allows LambdaVision to produce more consistent and even layers of proteins. The retinas are still under development, but Nicole Wagner, LambdaVision’s chief executive, believes that in a few years the company could produce them at scale on commercial space stations.
“There’s a lot of promise in continuing to do this work in a microgravity environment,” she says. “But the ISS is a research lab. Commercial space stations will have more capabilities. They will be designed with the future in mind.”