⚡TL;DR
Yuri Gravity is a space‑biotech startup founded in 2019. It builds fully automated micro‑labs the size of a wallet and sends them to the International Space Station (ISS) and other spacecraft so researchers can run experiments in different gravitational settings.
🌍 Earth’s biology has a gravity problem. Most drug R&D happens in flat, two‑dimensional dishes. But cells don’t behave here like they do in our bodies and many proteins refuse to crystallize. Microgravity lets tissues grow in 3‑D and proteins form defect‑free crystals.
⚙️ Yuri makes it easy. Its autonomous incubator offers temperature control, real-time data, and a centrifuge that simulates Earth, Moon, or Mars gravity. Researchers load samples, Yuri handles the launch, and data streams back while your experiment orbits the planet.
🙌 Why We Say Hell Yeah. Microgravity experiments have already helped turn a blockbuster cancer drug into an injectable form. By making such research cheap and routine, Yuri could help unlock discoveries we can’t yet imagine.
The Earth is flat (for cells)
Gravity is pretty dope. It shapes all life on earth, was the inspiration for that one Sandra Bullock movie, and also forces the Red Bull quickly in my tummy when I shotgun the can.
But for biology, gravity flattens everything. In petri dishes, cells spread like stacked pancakes instead of growing like tater tots. Not the same thing (see YouTube video below).
In microgravity*, where that pull is weaker, cells float in clusters, and proteins form larger, more uniform crystals. The geometry is critical. Finding the right shape for a protein is one of biotech’s biggest challenges, and space opens new ways to do it.
* We learned the correct term is “microgravity.” Since gravity exists everywhere in the universe, there is technically no such thing as “zero gravity.” So when we talk about things floating in spaceships or free-fall - that’s microgravity.
The rise of space biopharma
These type of insights aren’t new as scientists have been conducting biological research in space since the 1940s when the U.S. Army and early NASA programs launched organisms on V‑2 rockets and high‑altitude balloons.
As a notable recent case study, in 2017 Merck sent its cancer drug Keytruda® to the ISS to see if microgravity could improve its crystal structure. Early results showed better viscosity and injectability, potentially making cancer treatments easier to deliver. (Link).
Inspired by breakthroughs like Merck’s, a new generation of companies is treating orbit as a biopharma production zone.
Varda Space Industries builds autonomous capsules to mass-produce drugs in orbit and parachute them back to Earth.
Redwire focuses on biofabrication, 3-D printing tissues and organs in zero-g.
While groups like Yuri Gravity and SpacePharma run miniature orbital labs for protein crystallization and cell growth.
Together they’re showing that the next chapter of biotechnology may unfold in orbit, not on a lab bench.
Yuri’s ScienceTaxi: Uber for orbital experiments
The biggest barrier to space biology has always been cost. Space is far. Launching experiments once required nation-state budgets and astronaut scientists. Even low-orbit satellites or parabolic (free-fall) flights were expensive and hard to access.
Its core module, the ScienceShell, is a wallet-sized unit (~40×40×80 mm). (Smaller than my kickass Ninja Turtles wallet) Each one is 3-D printed and autonomous. Pumps move liquids, sensors track conditions, cameras record progress. Up to 38 fit inside a ScienceTaxi, a microgravity incubator with temperature control, automated sequencing, and live telemetry.
ScienceTaxis can go to the ISS, orbiting satellites, or parabolic flights that simulate gravity levels from Earth to Mars, at a fraction of the old cost ($10K for parabolic flights, ~$100K for ISS experiments).
Yuri acts as a one-stop shop: designing experiments, handling paperwork, integrating payloads, and managing recovery. Its team of biologists and engineers tailor protocols for microgravity research.
⚡Why we said hell yeah!
Gravity feels inevitable until you leave it behind. Up there, cells don’t settle, tissues bloom into spheres and proteins snap into perfect crystals. Microgravity is not some sci‑fi playground; it’s an extension of our lab bench into an environment where evolution never experimented. Imagine new disease treatments or hyper-aged bourbons because microgravity taught us a new way to pack molecules! The space biotech industry is starting to bloom and will offer unforeseen possibilities.
That’s the promise Yuri is chasing. By sending 38 mini-labs at a time into orbit, it’s turning space from a rare privilege into an accessible R&D platform. With affordable access, universities, startups, and even home biotech hobbyists can explore beyond Earth’s pull. (Insert cringey dad joke about sending his kids’ dirty socks in space for experiments.)
When creativity meets access, breakthroughs follow. Who knows what we’ll discover when anyone will be able to experiment above the clouds? The unknowns are bigger than the knowns, and that’s exactly why we say hell yeah.
Dive in Deeper
Yuri & Sierra Space maiden launch announcement has a good overview of ScienceTaxi features
ITIF Drug Development in Microgravity has good explanations of the science and describes the Merck experiment
NASA explanation how to simulate microgravity for experiments
Hit us up if you’d like to learn more or if you have suggestions for future features.
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