NASA made a manufacturing deal with a local technology company that could take its products into space.
Through the contract, TruSpin Nanomaterial Innovation (TruSpin), a supplier of nanofibers and developer of nanofiber production technology, will design nanofiber manufacturing equipment that will possibly be used on boad the International Space Station.
The awarded contract comes from NASA’s In-Space Production Applications (InSPA) program, which aims to combine manufacturing technologies that can be used in space to make products with features not suitable for Earth.
Technologies selected for the InSPA program are measured on value of the product, market size and likelihood that the absence of gravity on the space station will lead to superior product features. Focus areas for the program include biotechnology, disease modeling, tissue engineering and pharmaceutical development.
The nanofiber manufacturing equipment that TruSpin will be designing under the contract will be designed to produce nanofiber containing a chemotherapy invented at Southern Research called Dacarbazine.
The primary material present in these nanofibers dissolves at a known rate in the body, releasing chemotherapy as they do. Nanofibers can be constructed by materials triggered to break down from external influences from the body like ultrasound, allowing the drug to be released at the tumor site while limiting exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
Anthony Brayer, TruSpin’s chief technology officer, will be the principal investigator on the project. The UAB Materials Processing and Application Development Center is a sub-awardee of the project with Haibin Ning and Brian Pillay applying industry expertise to analyze the Dacarbazine-loaded nanofibers.
The Universities Space Research Association will oversee prototype hardware development to comply with the unique requirements of the ISS as the technology becomes ready for space flight.
