Bhubaneswar, March 31: Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Serendipity Space Private Ltd, a Bhubaneswar-based Start-up which is engaged in development of space-enabled technologies and platforms including modules for pharmaceutical crystallization, clinostat-based microgravity simulation and orbital crystallization missions in space.
Crystallization in zero gravity, a research area greatly pioneered by NASA over the past two decades, involves growing crystals in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS) to achieve higher quality, larger and more perfectly ordered structures than is possible on earth.
Following NASA’ foot prints, Serendipity Space Private Ltd, located at the DBT-Institute of Life Sciences Incubator, have developed abilities to develop new crystals in zero gravity in space to produce larger, uniform and qualitatively higher crystals by eliminating buoyancy driven convection and sedimentation to promote drug formulation stability, bioavailability and structure based drug design.
On the other hand, SOA has established research capabilities, laboratories and expertise in small molecule crystallization techniques. The two parties intend to collaborate on crystallization experiments involving small molecules under laboratory, simulated microgravity and spaceflight conditions. Both institutes aim to collaborate for development of novel drug products by capitalizing on their complementary expertise, Prof. Bharat Bhushan Subudhi, Professor at School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPS), SOA’s faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, said.
Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Vice-Chancellor of SOA and Mr. Antariksh Parichha, CEO of Serendipity Space Private Ltd signed the MoU.
Development of larger, purer and more highly ordered protein crystals and molecular structures compared to that done on earth will contribute to superior drug formulation, improved drug delivery and faster and more precise structure based drug design for treating diseases like cancer, Mr. Parichha said.
Microgravity helped develop crystalline drugs which were more stable and enabled easier, long-term storage without refrigeration, he said adding the high quality crystals enabled the development of more concentrated pharmaceutical solutions, potentially allowing intravenous drugs to be delivered orally.
Prof. Debajyoti Das, Dean of SPS, Prof. Subudhi and Mr. Pramod Kumar Panda, SOA’s Chief Administrative Officer, were present during the signing of the MoU.
