Space X launches bacteria to ISS to track disease evolution

SpaceX has sent up four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) along with the disease-causing bacteria for the Crew-11 mission on Friday, August 1, 2025.

The experiment has been launched by the Israeli scientists at the Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate Center (ARC) for Digital Innovation at Sheba Medical Center in collaboration with the US-based space tech company SpaceTango to examine the effect of microgravity on the growth of certain bacterial species responsible for causing disease in humans.

The bacterial strains include E. Coli, Salmonella bongori and Salmonella typhimurium. Researchers will grow these different bacterial strains in the orbiting laboratory under microgravity at the freezing temperature of -80 degrees Celsius.

After the certain growth, the scientists will bring the samples back to Earth to observe their growth patterns and gene expression by comparing them with the bacterial samples grown on the planet.

The project marks the ARC’s second space-based experiment and its first mission to the ISS.

Potential panacea for public health

According to the researchers, the recently-launched experiment and the data extracted from it will help curb the spread of infectious diseases, posing a severe threat to global health.

The study will also help in tracking the disease evolution and finding new ways to stop bacteria from developing antibiotic resistance by studying the gene expression. Given the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) across the world, the study will prove saviour for humanity.

Prof. Ohad Gal-Mor, the head of Sheba’s Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory said in a statement: “This experiment will allow us, for the first time, to systematically and molecularly map how the genetic expression profile of several pathogenic bacteria changes in space.”

“We know that space conditions affect bacterial behavior, including how they grow, express genes, and acquire traits like antibiotic resistance or virulence,” he added.