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Melbourne-based analytical and life sciences company Trajan Group Holdings (ASX: TRJ) is playing a key role in the search to better manage the health of astronauts in space following the launch of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission in the US this week.
Polaris Dawn, which took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday Australian time, is making history as the highest manned space flight since the Apollo 17 lunar mission in December 1972.
Aboard the flight is equipment from one of Trajan’s US subsidiaries that will be used to better understand how pharmaceuticals may be processed differently in space.
Neoteryx, the microsampling arm of Trajan Scientific and Medical, has donated its Mitra-branded microsampling devices for use in the Polaris Dawn mission.
The devices will be deployed to collect data for a study into the efficacy and safety of pharmaceutical use during human spaceflights.
Trajan says that medications may require different doses in the microgravity of space. They may even be ineffective or lead to different side effects than they do on Earth.
“Blood samples collected by the crew using Mitra devices will provide critical data on how drug concentration levels or side effects may be altered in microgravity, which can inform the need for dosing changes of certain drugs for individuals going into space,” says the company.
“For the microsampling study, the crewmembers’ blood samples will be analysed by a team led by Jonathan Donehoo, D. Pharm, to investigate how paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) is processed by the human body while in space.”
Crewmembers will take three doses of 500mg paracetamol - one preflight, one during flight and one postflight.
After taking the paracetamol, the crew will use Mitra devices and a lancet to self-collect eight different blood samples from their forearm or finger at different time points after ingesting the medication.
The scientists will use the data to improve the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals used during human spaceflight.
Polaris Dawn is on a five-day mission that will take astronauts into space to a distance that is three farther than International Space Station.
Astronauts will undertake the first-ever commercial spacewalk on the mission, while also conducting extensive research to further knowledge of human health on Earth and during long-duration spaceflights. The crew will also test Starlink’s laser-based communications in space.
Trajan Group acquired Neoteryx in 2022, bringing on board a market leader in remote specimen collection and microsampling with operations in the US, UK and Europe.
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