Trajan provides microsampling devices for space mission

Trajan Scientific and Medical’s Neoteryx business has donated Mitra microsampling devices to the Polaris Dawn Mission which has blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in the United States.

Polaris Dawn is the first of the Polaris Program’s three human spaceflight missions aiming to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown, attempt the first-ever commercial spacewalk, and conduct extensive research to further the understanding of human health.

The Polaris crew will undertake a microsampling study that will explore how pharmaceuticals may be processed differently in space.

The blood samples collected by the crew will provide critical data on how drug concentration levels or side effects may be altered in microgravity, which will inform the need for dosing changes of certain drugs for individuals going into space.

Medications may require different doses, may be ineffective, or may cause different side effects in space than they do on Earth.

During the 5-day mission, crewmembers will take three doses of 500 mg paracetamol: one preflight, one during flight, and one postflight.

After taking the paracetamol, the crew will use Mitra devices and a lancet to self-collect eight different blood samples from their forearm or finger at different time points after ingesting the medication.

For the microsampling study, the crewmembers’ blood samples will be analysed by a team led by Jonathan Donehoo, D. Pharm, to investigate how paracetamol is processed by the human body while in space.

The microsampling pharmacokinetic (PK) study aims to make pharmaceutical use during human spaceflight safer and more effective.

Picture: Neoteryx microsampling device