Microgravity Manufacturing Advances Artificial Retina Technology Toward Blindness Treatment
Nine ISS Investigations Yield Improved Uniformity, Stability, and a Path to Commercial Production
Microgravity manufacturing aboard the International Space Station has produced artificial retinas with measurably better optical performance than those made on Earth, a biotechnology company announced June 10.
“Through our flight projects on the ISS, we’ve taken a lot of the risk out of demonstrating the value of manufacturing in space.”
Nicole Wagner, LambdaVision
LambdaVision, a biotech startup, has conducted nine investigations on the ISS over the past decade, building and refining an automated production system designed to manufacture a protein-based artificial retina at commercial scale. The device is constructed from hundreds of layers of a light-activated protein.
On Earth, gravity-driven forces — sedimentation and buoyancy — cause uneven layering during production. The result is raw material waste and a ceiling on scalability. In microgravity, those forces are eliminated, and the manufacturing process performs differently.
Artificial retinas produced aboard the station show improved uniformity, optical performance, and reproducibility compared to those made on the ground, according to the ISS National Laboratory, which sponsored the research. They also demonstrate enhanced stability and biocompatibility while consuming less raw material per unit produced.
Working with ISS National Lab implementation partner Space Tango, LambdaVision developed a compact, automated production system housed inside Space Tango’s CubeLab hardware on the station. The hardware operates without crew intervention, running the layering process autonomously in orbit. The ISS campaign also allowed the team to refine automation routines, fault detection, and quality control protocols — steps the company said are required before pursuing regulatory clearance.
“Through our flight projects on the ISS, we’ve taken a lot of the risk out of demonstrating the value of manufacturing in space,” said Nicole Wagner, CEO of LambdaVision.
The company’s target patient populations are those with age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Both conditions currently have no cure. Together they affect more than 200 million people worldwide.
Age-related macular degeneration degrades the central retina, impairing reading, driving, and facial recognition. Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited disorder that progressively destroys photoreceptor cells. LambdaVision’s device is designed to replace the function of those damaged cells using the protein bacteriorhodopsin, which responds to light and can generate the electrical signals the eye normally sends to the brain. The company has not disclosed clinical trial timelines or regulatory filing dates.
LambdaVision’s next ISS investigation is scheduled to launch later this year. That mission will focus on increasing production volume and further optimizing the manufacturing process — moving the program from proof-of-concept demonstration toward the output levels needed for a viable commercial supply chain.
The company has also reserved capacity on Starlab, the commercial space station under development by Voyager Space and Airbus, to continue in-orbit manufacturing after the ISS is retired — currently planned for the end of the decade. That reservation positions LambdaVision to maintain continuity of its orbital production platform through the transition from government-operated to commercially operated stations.
“We’re now thinking about how we scale in orbit and what’s next as we transition from the ISS to other platforms in the future,” Wagner said.
The ISS National Laboratory is managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space under a cooperative agreement with NASA. It provides access to the station’s unique environment for research in life sciences, materials science, and manufacturing. Space Tango, a Kentucky-based company, operates CubeLab hardware aboard the station and provides end-to-end services for automated on-orbit research and manufacturing.
The LambdaVision program represents one of the more advanced manufacturing use cases to emerge from the ISS National Lab’s commercial portfolio, in that it targets a regulated medical device rather than a research sample. How the company navigates the path from on-orbit production to FDA-approved product — and what manufacturing infrastructure that path requires — will determine whether the space environment becomes part of a permanent supply chain or remains a development tool.