Biogravity LLC Opens Microgravity-Focused Laboratory at WMU Innovation Center
INNOVATIONS IN BIOTECH AND CELL DISCOVERY TO USE GRAVITATIONAL UNLOADING
KALAMAZOO, MI / ACCESSWIRE / October 5, 2021 / Newly launched microgravity startup www.BioGravityLLC.com has opened their lab at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine Innovation Center.
Touted as a place to start and grow life science, technology, and engineering ventures, the WMU Innovation Center integrates 69,000-square-feet of purpose-built incubator and co-working space to support the growth of early startup through maturing companies. The name of the BioGravity Lab is the Michigan Space Station.
Led by industry researcher Dr. James Secrest, BioGravity LLC is a contract research organization that enables novel medical research for classroom or lab or pharmaceutical industry blending advanced simulated microgravity processes with exacting experimental protocols.
Dr. Secrest noted on the BioGravity™ Lab opening this week, “We may be prescient in our timing…the 2021 Nobel Prize for physiology in medicine was announced on Monday for discovering the receptors that allow humans to feel temperature and touch. No better place to study mechanosensitive biology than in microgravity, right?”
Dr. Secrest leads a world-wide team developing innovations in bioengineering, cell and compound discoveries right up to clinical end-to-end verification. “The goal is a platform process for inspiring biologic innovations derived in microgravity” said Dr. Secrest. “We believe the key to regenerative medicine is in mechanobiology experiments. Hence the name BioGravity”
Center to the platform is a bioengineering device developed at University of Technology Sydney that provides gravitational unloading of cells using a unique Random Positioning Machine (R.P.M.) called the Explor Space BioGravity ™ Platform. “BioGravity is the exclusive North American distributor of the devices and the first integrated lab to deploy the platform in the Americas” noted Dr. Secrest.
The BIOGRAVITY™ PLATFORM fits inside most standard incubators and features a platform for 96 Well Plate or 250mL bio reactor experiments using graduated microgravity with an integrated software package.
Joining the BioGravity leadership team is startup advisor and Chief Commercial Officer, Frank Pournelle. “Having known Dr. Secrest since I was his patrol leader in Boy Scouts, it was my Dad that always saw great potential in James. That’s why the moment we reacquainted last year, we started talking space medicines and the light bulb went on. We had to create a lab that brought to Earth the secrets of extending and improving life using microgravity.”
(Frank’s father, Dr. Jerry Pournelle was a noted science fiction author and Apollo-era life scientist who was Chairman Emeritus of the Institute of Space Commerce and a major contributor to the American Association for the Advancement of Science until his death in 2017. Dr. Pournelle was also the Hike Master for Troop 139 in North Hollywood, CA)
The first experiments being conducted by BioGravity are in protein crystallization with later plans for cell culture hybridoma production and chiral molecules. “It’s my belief, one area of microgravity ready for exploitation and rapid advancement is in using optical isomers to study when a molecule and its mirror image are not identical. We’re also curious if there are binding affinities intrinsic to microgravity” said Dr. Secrest on October 4, 2021.
Rated to 400 grams and radiation tested, the BioGravity platform is available for stem cell, exosome, bacteria, macrophage, small molecule, tumor and compound testing.
Advantages for the BioGravity platforms innovation include low fluid shear, lack of sedimentation and low turbulence, According to the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University (in support of NASA) “simulated microdevices can be an invaluable tool to understanding mechanisms of the infection process.” As well, novel quantitative biosystems for modeling biofilm formation such as the BioGravity ™ Platform may aid transformative innovations in hfq expression through gravitational unloading.
BioGravity offers three ways to collaborate with the BioGravity™ team.
Clients may rent a commercial-grade BIOGRAVITY™ PLATFORM for about $1100 a month
Clients may purchase a BIOGRAVITY™ PLATFORM with a $10,000 discount for academia or non-profit.
Lastly, BioGravity clients may commission a BIOGRAVITY™ EXPERIMENT with clinical or end-to-end verification from $15,000 USD.
Custom accessories and world-wide team consulting are also available including the anticipated development of an “isolated autonomous bioreactor”.
Rent, purchase or commission the Explor Space BioGravity™ Platform at the Michigan Space Station at www.BioGravityLLC.com
FOR PRESS INQUIRIES:
Frank Pournelle
Chief Commercial Officer
Microgravity & Cell Division
NOVEL LAB + PRE-CLINIC DISCOVERY
800-334-4500
SOURCE: BioGravity LLC
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