Space Crystals: Overcoming Earth's Gravity for Better Drug Discovery

2025-04-14
Space Crystals: Overcoming Earth's Gravity for Better Drug Discovery

Growing high-quality protein crystals on Earth is challenging due to gravity-induced sedimentation, convection currents, and impurity issues. In microgravity, however, these problems are significantly reduced, leading to more uniform and higher-resolution crystals. Studies show microgravity-grown crystals exhibit significant improvements in morphology, uniformity, and resolution, with major implications for drug discovery, food chemistry, and structural biology. Spark Gravity aims to lower the barrier to entry for protein crystal research by simulating microgravity environments, accelerating the research process.