Nicole Wagner watched live coverage last Saturday of SpaceX sending the first astronauts into orbit via a privately made rocket.
Sending human beings into space is always an exciting moment, but the successful launch — including two astronauts who have since arrived safely at the International Space Station — was particularly noteworthy to Wagner.
That’s because her company, Farmington-based LambdaVision, which is developing an artificial retina to cure blindness caused by several diseases, is conducting research and development on the International Space Station that could eventually help bring its product to market.
With private-manned flights expected to increase in the years ahead, it should mean a greater capacity to conduct experiments in weightless conditions.
“We were excited to see it happen,” Wagner, who is LambdaVision’s president and CEO, said this week of the launch. “Maybe we’ll get more frequent launches in the future. The more experiments we’re doing in microgravity the more possibilities we have.”
The launch timing was good. LambdaVision announced just two days later that NASA had awarded the company a $750,000 grant, under the Small Business Innovation Research program, to expand its product research and development pipeline aboard the International Space Station. The award follows a $5 million NASA grant announced in April.
Wagner said she hopes to send her company’s next experiment up to the International Space Station on a launch scheduled for August, with another planned for next year. Though it requires an astronaut to plug in the equipment once it arrives on the International Space Station, LambdaVision and its partner Space Tango can control the rest of the work remotely from the ground, Wagner said.
LambdaVision has turned its eyes skyward in the hopes of finding better ways to produce its artificial retina, which is made with a light-activated protein.
LambdaVision uses a layer-by-layer manufacturing process, alternating the protein and a polymer. Microgravity conditions provide an opportunity to produce more homogenous and stable layers. Making the retinas in space could also speed up the process and reduce the amount of materials required.
The company aims to improve upon electrode-based implants that require external power supplies or outside hardware to work.
LambdaVision is targeting patients with age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, with the aim of restoring functional sight to patients who would otherwise be blind.
While the company continues to refine its production process for the retina, the newly announced grant will allow it to explore other potential uses for its layering process, including photovoltaic cells and chemical sensors.
