Space Lintech places space medicine module 'BEE-PC2' on the International Space Station

Space Lintech, a space medicine company, announced on the 14th that it had launched the artificial intelligence (AI)-based next-generation space medicine experiment module 'BEE-PC2' to the International Space Station (ISS) on the 13th.

BEE-PC2 was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, on the morning of the 13th local time.

This mission is a follow-up mission to the space medicine experiment 'BEE-PC1' conducted by Space Lintech on the ISS last year, and was carried out to lay the foundation for commercial space medicine contract research (CRO) services for domestic and foreign pharmaceutical and bio companies, the company said.

This module performs co-crystallization experiments between target proteins and new drug candidate small molecule compounds.

In addition to crystallizing individual proteins, crystals of protein and compound complexes are grown in a space microgravity environment and their structures are analyzed after recovery to confirm the possibility of use in new drug development.

The company explained that the co-crystal structure helps to understand at the atomic level which new drug candidate compound binds to which part of the target protein and in what form.

Space Lintech sent the space medicine satellite BEE-1012 through the fifth launch of Nuri on the 7th.

The company announced that the ISS-based BEE-PC series will be used for new drug development research, and the stand-alone satellite BEE-1000 series will be used to verify long-term space environment exposure, autonomous operation, and process expansion possibilities.

The company added that it plans to expand the platform to stand-alone satellites and private commercial space stations based on the technology accumulated through repeated verification of the ISS, and expand into the pharmaceutical manufacturing (CMO) business utilizing the space environment.

Hak-sun Yoon, CEO of Spacelintech, said, "If last year's BEE-PC1 was the first demonstration that confirmed the potential of Korea's space medicine technology, this year's BEE-PC2 is an important step in developing that technology into a service that can actually be used in the pharmaceutical and bio industries."

He added, "Based on a differentiated space medicine platform that simultaneously utilizes the International Space Station and independent satellites, we will expand services so that global pharmaceutical and bio companies can actively utilize the space environment for new drug development."