RadPharm – Space meets Pharma

Space Medicine and Space Medical Operations

The presentation will describe ESA’s approach to space medicine and medical operations for human spaceflight. It covers astronaut medical support across pre-flight, in-flight, landing, and post-flight phases. We will also discuss key health risks in space, including microgravity effects, radiation effects and other key factors affecting humans in space. It also outlines future exploration medical systems, technologies, and requirements for supporting missions beyond low Earth orbit.

Alzheimer’s in Transition—New Drugs, New Guidelines, New Perspectives

Alzheimer’s disease is currently undergoing a fundamental shift—from a purely clinically defined diagnosis of dementia to a biologically characterized disease. New biomarker assays in cerebrospinal fluid, PET, and, increasingly, in blood enable earlier and more precise diagnosis as early as the prodromal or preclinical stages. At the same time, disease-modifying therapies such as the anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies lecanemab and donanemab mark a therapeutic paradigm shift: for the first time, the progression of the disease can be measurably slowed.

The presentation highlights current developments in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, discusses new guidelines and challenges in clinical implementation, and addresses the importance of individualized risk-benefit assessments. In addition, future perspectives on prevention and early detection will be presented, with an increasing focus on presymptomatic stages and population-based strategies.

Unravel the impact of microbiota on the development of Alzheimer's disease under microgravity

A hallmark feature of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer´s or Parkinson´s disease, is the presence of aberrant protein aggregates in the brain and other organs. Their primary constituents, amyloid proteins, have emerged as crucial players in the etiopathogenesis of neurodegeneration. Interestingly, human amyloid proteins appear to be molecules which possess also antimicrobial functions.  
In the meantime, various microbial organisms from the oral and the gut microbiome have been linked to these diseases. Interestingly, numerous microbes of the oral cavity and the gut are also known to produce amyloidogenic proteins.  
Since microgravity has been shown to assist in the exploration of human amyloid proteins, this environmental condition could be very attractive for the study of microbial amyloids, too. The same holds true for the investigation of neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and the role of mitochondrial dysfunction, all further hallmarks of the development of Alzheimer´s disease.  
However, studying the connection between neurodegenerative diseases and the microbiome under microgravity is a highly interdisciplinary problem involving microbiology, neuroscience, space biology, immunology, and bioengineering. 

Research and Manufacturing in Space - From “Rocket Science” to a Gravity Switch

Research in microgravity now has a history spanning more than half a century—over 50 years of research in medicine, biotechnology, biology, and more. And yet, the use of microgravity remains a niche application.

This is primarily due to the enormous complexity associated with research and manufacturing in space. In particular, risk management and the necessary certification of payloads transported into space entail high costs, long lead times, and significant project risks. That is why Tumbleweed is developing certification-free access to space, which allows hardware to be sent into space quickly, easily, and at a fraction of the certification cost. The goal is to make microgravity readily accessible to all laboratories and companies.

With the first mission—Oasis Alpha, Austria’s first commercial satellite—four payloads were launched into Earth orbit in July. The presentation will cover the current status and recent developments in research and manufacturing in microgravity. Furthermore, Oasis Alpha will be presented, and using the four payloads on board as an example, the presentation will demonstrate how companies and laboratories that have never previously operated in space can send payloads into orbit in just a few months for less than 30kEUR.

Radiodiagnostics & Radiopharmaceuticals – Production Today in Seibersdorf, Tomorrow in Space?

With the pointedly worded title of my presentation, I would like to address the core theme of our conference.

Taking today’s challenges in radiopharmacy as our starting point, we will venture a look into the future. What possibilities does research in microgravity open up? How can the technologies established in Seibersdorf and the radiopharmaceutical expertise contribute to this field in the future?

The requirements for GMP-compliant manufacturing of radiopharmaceuticals will continue to rise in the future, particularly in light of the new development and production opportunities we are exploring today. The range of necessary services—from process development and quality control to clinical production—will grow in importance. In my presentation, I will also provide a brief overview of our company’s current contributions to the development of innovative radiodiagnostics and radiotherapeutics.

After all, the foundation for tomorrow’s medicine is already being laid today, including here in Seibersdorf.

Data Transfer from Space – Upstream & Downstream: From Orbital Experiments to Clinical Application

New Space is fundamentally changing access to microgravity research. Increasing launch frequencies, standardized payloads, COTS technologies, and commercial access to orbit are making it increasingly possible to view experiments in space not just as isolated, hard-to-access missions, but as a repeatable research infrastructure.

For the life sciences, Alzheimer’s research, and radiopharmaceuticals, this development opens up new perspectives. Orbital experiments can help investigate biological processes such as protein folding, cellular stress, neuroinflammation, or neurodegenerative mechanisms under specific physical conditions. What is crucial here is not merely the technical downlink of data, but its structured translation into scientifically and clinically actionable insights.

The presentation highlights the interface between upstream and downstream activities: from New Space infrastructure, payload design, and data acquisition in microgravity to the question of how this can generate momentum for biomarkers, radiotracer development, and, in the long term, clinical applications. The focus is on the thesis that New Space not only makes microgravity more accessible but, above all, more reproducible, and that this very reproducibility is a key prerequisite for translational research.

Thus, “Data Transfer from Space” refers not only to the technical transmission of data from orbit, but also to the transfer of infrastructure, data, and innovative approaches from the New Space ecosystem to medical and radiopharmaceutical research.

Quantum Advantage - Was Quantum Computing, Sensing und Communication für die Pharmaforschung leisten können

Quantum technologies promise a wide array of opportunities to advance pharmaceutical companies. Quantum computing, communication and sensing are distinct avenues of different maturity and applicability, yet each possesses great potential to disrupt current standards. Quantum computing (also in conjunction with quantum machine learning) is being invested in by leading pharmaceutical companies for drug discovery, protein folding, target identification, and can be applied to supply chain and clinical trial optimization. Communication of critical data needs to be quantum secure today to avoid decryption tomorrow. As quantum sensors are being already used in labs, further improvements and new technologies for bio marker detection, drug delivery and imaging with, e.g., quantum dots or NV centers, could make them mainstream in biomedical applications. 

The first part of the talk will provide a general overview of quantum technologies in pharmaceutical research and development, using Alzheimer's disease diagnostics and drug discovery as a case study to illustrate their potential in an area of high unmet medical need. The second part turns to quantum communication, addressing why quantum-secure data transmission, including satellite-based approaches, is becoming a near-term consideration for safeguarding sensitive research and clinical data.

Pharma, Science and Space

Performing research in space as part of a pharmaceutical development program is not an obvious approach.  Late in my career at Eli Lilly and Co. I was presented with the opportunity to do work that would be flown to the International Space Station. This work has taken me and my career in an entirely new direction.  One that has been beneficial to my career and has the potential to be beneficial to the pharmaceutical industry. In this presentation I will describe the events that have led me to this point and describe how this approach can made to work at other pharmaceutical companies and in other industries.