For the First Time, Scientists Send Fungi to Space in a Hope to Develop New Medicines

According to the researchers, placing fungi in extraterrestrial environment could help them develop new medicines that they can use on Earth and perhaps on long-term space missions too. This is one of its kind study that intersects pharmaceutical science and space exploration, Clay Wang, USC professor of pharmacology, said.

While fungus is something that is considered bad for us, there are several members of the fungi family that have been very helpful to humans.

Tens of years ago, scientists found that some species of fungi create molecules, secondary metabolites, to help beat stressful circumstances. As the researchers harvested molecules, the researchers were able to create important drugs that changed the way medicine

By harvesting these molecules, researchers have been able to make new and important drugs that have changed the course of medicine. Penicillin is one such medicine that is produced from the Penicillium genre, that when exposed to bacteria becomes antibiotic.

With the help of genome sequencing, Wang shows that aspergillus nidulans, one of the most commonly studies fungi is capable of making 40 different drug-making options. However, most of these pathways never get "turned on."

"In nature, fungi only make what they need to respond to their environment," Wang said.

"These pathways are like a set of tools or weapons in their arsenal, and most of the time they are not in use."

Wang collaborated with Kasthuri Venkateswaran, a microbiologist at Jet Propulsion laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, conducts microbe study in space.

April 8 will be the day when four different strains of Aspergillius nidulans will launch towards ISS on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. They will return to Earth on May 10. The experiment will last for up to seven days. The advantage of working with fungi is that its growth can be temperature controlled.