LNP leak check
Compare intact lipid nanoparticle (LNP) samples with opened samples to see how much messenger RNA (mRNA) escaped early.
Genes in Space Finalists - Top 5 out of 980 submissions
Medicine has to survive the trip.
Capsule Space Labs is building toward a testing platform for messenger RNA (mRNA) medicines wrapped in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs): did the package stay sealed, did the medicine leak, and could it still work after the trip?
Genes in Space FinalistsTop 5 / 980 submissionsISS-focused mRNA-LNP stability test
I / Flight Question
What fails first: the medicine, the package, or the mission plan?
Long-duration crews will need modern medicines that can sit in storage, ride through launch, and still work when there is no hospital backup. Our first question is simple: does weightlessness make lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) leak their messenger RNA (mRNA) cargo before they are supposed to?
II / Test Platform
Encapsulation efficiency experimentISS sample versus Earth control
SampleIntact mRNA-LNP after storage
Leak signalEscaped messenger RNA outside the package
ControlOpened LNP shows total messenger RNA
White center: lipid nanoparticle (LNP) package.
Orange strand: messenger RNA (mRNA) cargo.
Green points: mRNA detected outside the LNP.
Question: did spaceflight make the LNP package leak?Compare: leaked mRNA from intact sample versus total mRNA from opened sample.Output: encapsulation efficiency, the percent of mRNA still kept inside.
Not a drug company first
A test range for medicines leaving Earth.
The first product is a clear answer: did the lipid nanoparticle (LNP) stay sealed, did messenger RNA (mRNA) leak, did the RNA get damaged, and could it still do its job after flight-like stress?
mRNA function test
Use a glow-producing reporter to see whether accessible messenger RNA (mRNA) can still make protein.
RNA damage check
Use reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) to separate RNA damage from LNP package failure.
Space versus Earth
Compare ISS-stored samples with matching Earth controls across time, temperature, and stress.
III / What We Test
Flight-qualified medicine
Not every medicine is ready to leave Earth.
Capsule Space Labs focuses on the fragile parts of modern therapeutics: the RNA instruction, the lipid nanoparticle package, and the conditions that can quietly weaken both before a crew ever needs the dose.
mRNA medicines
Messenger RNA (mRNA) medicines whose function depends on RNA staying readable after storage, launch, and flight.
LNP packaging
Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that protect the medicine until the dose reaches the right biological target.
RNA degradation
Signals that separate damaged RNA from a package that simply leaked before it should have.
Temperature stress
Storage conditions that can change how long advanced medicines stay usable away from Earth.
Launch and orbit
The combined stress of vibration, time, radiation exposure, and microgravity on packaged medicines.
IV / Who This Is For
Built for mission partners
For teams that cannot guess whether medicine survives the trip.
Pharma teams qualifying advanced medicines for off-world use.
Biotech groups building RNA, gene therapy, or nanoparticle platforms.
NASA and commercial station partners planning biological payloads.
Defense medicine groups preparing treatments for isolated environments.
Mission planners who need medical systems to be as reliable as hardware.
V / Experiment Timeline
From Earth to readout
A stability study needs a chain of custody.
Earth baseline
Measure intact and opened mRNA-LNP samples before flight so there is a clean starting point.
Launch and storage
Send matched samples through the same storage window, with Earth controls held in parallel.
ISS exposure
Let the sample experience true microgravity while protecting the readout plan from crew complexity.
Return readout
Use fluorescence and end-point reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) to separate leak from RNA damage.
Stability score
Report how much medicine stayed packaged and whether the flight sample drifted from the Earth control.
Why space health
The pharmacy cannot be the weakest system on the spacecraft.
A medicine that works on Earth is not automatically mission-ready. In space, failure can be quiet: a package leaks, an RNA strand degrades, or a dose loses strength while sitting in storage.
Long-duration crews need treatments that work months after launch.Pharma needs real spaceflight data, not assumptions.Mission planners need medicine treated like life-support hardware.
VI / Manifesto
A small doctrine
Reliability is the first medical breakthrough.
Medicine is mission infrastructure.
A crew medical kit cannot depend on a supply chain that is millions of miles away.
The next generation of medicine must be tested in the environments where it will be trusted.
We are starting with messenger RNA (mRNA) medicines because the lipid nanoparticle (LNP) package is as important as the medicine itself.
The goal is not to make space medicine look futuristic. The goal is to make it measurable.
VII / How We Test
Plate 01 - ISS Cupola
Core experiment
One mRNA-LNP question, three checks before we trust the answer.
BioBits cell-free expression shows whether accessible mRNA can still produce a readable glow signal.
Intact and opened LNP samples show what leaked early versus what was present in total.
End-point RT-PCR helps explain whether a weak signal means RNA damage or LNP package failure.
Encapsulation efficiency1 - intact signal / opened signal
VIII / Crew
Two founders, one space-medicine question.
Capsule Space Labs begins from a student-led space biology proposal and grows into a focused health-tech thesis: medicines need flight qualification, not just shelf-life labels.
Co-founder
Soneesh Kothagundla
Harvard '30
Genes in Space FinalistNASA GeneLab Finalist
Co-founder
Nikhil Fernandes
Lambert HS '27
Genes in Space Finalist
IX / Contact The Lab
Collaborate
For research, payload, or early partner conversations.
Reach out for research collaborations, flight payload discussions, or early partner interest in testing medicine stability beyond Earth.
Contact the LabThe purpose
Make future medicine dependable wherever humans go next.
Spaceflight stability LNP package behavior Medicine readiness