BioX2
Biological Exploration Payload 2
Faculty Advisor/PI: Dr. Christopher E. Carr
Dates: January 2021; flight conducted in November-December 2022.
Current Status: Planning for next stage of payload advancement and writing up research results.
Launch Provider: Nanoracks LLC
Collaborators: MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative
BioX2 (Biological Exploration Payload 2) was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in October 2022 to be a technological demonstration for biological sample automation, nucleic acid extraction, and nanopore sequencing in space.
Autonomous sequencing with an embedded MinION was succesfully tested in ground operations but could not be tested in flight due to a USB cable interface that sheared on launch. Thermal control of the MinION flowcell was demonstrated on orbit. We grew Bacillus subtilis in a custom bioreactor and used the onboard GPU computer to carry out neutral network basecalling and genome assembly in space, both firsts as far as we know.
Funding: Supported by MIT Space Exploration Initiative via NASA Award 80NSSC21M0012 to Maria T. Zuber and faculty startup funds from the Georgia Institute of Technology to C.E.C.