JERUSALEM: Israel and Italy launched a joint nanosatellite for scientific-medical experiments in space, Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology and the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) said on Thursday.
The satellite launch is a joint project of both countries’ space agencies.
The nanosatellite includes a tiny 2.3-kg laboratory, at a size of a milk carton, manufactured by the Israeli start-up company Space Pharma.
The lab, called DIDO-3, will conduct four experiments in the fields of medicine, biology and chemistry, to gain findings that are not possible to get under Earth’s gravitation.
The innovative lab satellite allows scientists to conduct experiments remotely in complete control and in an independent, accessible, and safe way.
The first experiment will be carried out by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, in collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II, and is expected to examine the development of bacterial resistance against antibiotics without gravity.
The second experiment, to be held by the Technion and the University of Bologna, will monitor the speed at which enzymes break up bacterial residues that cause diseases, as part of an effort to prevent infections, mainly in hospitals.
Another experiment by the Technion, in collaboration with Roma Tre University, will examine how drugs are absorbed by albumin, a major protein in the blood.
The fourth experiment will be conducted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tor Vergata University of Rome, examining the phenomenon of “folding” DNA molecules, which may shed light on the aging of human cells.
The results, expected within weeks, will be transmitted to Earth, and then they will be analyzed by the scientists.–Agencies
