•Notícia

Arnau Rabadán and Albert González, studying industrial engineering at the Universitat Poltècnica de Catalunya (UPC)-Barcelona Tech  and interns at the Fundació CIM; Sergi Vaquer, a doctoral student with a bachelor’s degree in medicine from the UAB and Elisabet Cuyàs, a biochemistry doctoral student at the UAB —voth researchers from the Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), participate in the 51st European Space Agency’s (ESA) parabolic flight campaign on November 3, 4 and 5 in order to study changes in drug-cell interaction under microgravity conditions.

It will take place aboard the Airbus A300 ZERO-G, used by some astronauts as part of their training.

In the experiment, called ABCtr MicroG, the young researchers will study the behavior of ABC transporters, biological agents that are responsible for removing drugs and other toxins from human cells, under microgravity conditions.

For this purpose, the students, supported by the Fundació CIM,  a benchmark technology center of the UPC-Barcelona Tech in the field of production technologies where the mechanism was designed and built, have developed an electromechanical prototype capable of carrying out biotechnology experiments at zero gravity. The engineering, production and flight preparation activities are being supervised by Felip Fenollosa, co-director of the CIM Foundation and a lecturer at the UPC’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The development of the prototype was made possible by the co-operation of several companies, including Solvo Biotechnology and Schneider Electric who, as leaders in industrial automation and control, provided virtually 100% of the control and electromechanical elements of the prototype, along with servo drives, HMI screens, robots, engines step, as well as protection in low voltage system.

The results obtained in the experiment under microgravity will be compared with those obtained on the ground at the Municipal Medical Research Institute (IMIM–Hospital del Mar), Barcelona, where the biotechnology aspect of the project is being developed.

The UPC-Barcelona Tech and UAB students will participate, together with three other university teams from Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom, in the ESA Fly your Thesis! program, designed to provide students the opportunity to develop, prepare and carry out a scientific experiment in conditions similar to space. The Catalan team is the only Spanish group that was selected this past December from among the 16 finalists (from a total pool of 30 European research groups) to participate in the program, an opportunity for doctoral and master’s degree students from all over Europe to carry out a scientific experiment under microgravity conditions.

In order to be allowed on board the Airbus A300 ZERO-G that will take off next week from the Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport, the prototype designed by the Catalan team has had to undergo mechanical resistance, electrical security, heating and temperature control tests, among others, over the course of this past week at the facilities of Novaspace, a branch of the French National Center for Aerospace Studies in charge of operating the aircraft.

Parabolic flights originated as part of the training for astronauts and consist in accelerating the aircraft while climbing, then turning the engines down to minimum for 20 seconds, the aircraft thereby free-falling in a parabola. During those 20 seconds, conditions in the cabin approach zero gravity. These maneuvers are repeated up to 30 consecutive times per flight, such that the researchers, after the three flights they will be on, will have had the opportunity to experiment with microgravity over a considerable period of time (approximately 30 minutes).

The experiment is being coordinated by Sergi Vaquer and is called the ABCtr MicroG project. It will study the behavior of ABC transporters, biological agents that are responsible for removing drugs and other toxins from human cells, under microgravity conditions. For this purpose, the UPC-Barcelona Tech and UAB researchers have developed a special protocol to enable the activity of these molecules to be measured very accurately during the 20 seconds of microgravity in each of the 30 parabolas on a parabolic flight.

Arnau Rabadán is in charge of the technical part of the experiment, which involved designing a mechanism to mix the biomedical fluid and the ABC transporters inside a syringe, activating the chemical reaction. All of this must be done at 37 ºC, that is, human body temperature. After 20 seconds the system introduces a liquid into the syringe to freeze the mixture so that it will not be affected by gravity and the experiment is repeated in the next parabola.

The mechanism is regulated by a high-precision electronic control system, since the conditions for the experiment and the quantity of liquids to be injected must be precisely set. The control system includes active elements, such as the motor to drive the syringes, and also supervisory elements, such as the censors to regulate the temperature of the syringe where the mixing is done.


The results will be useful in improving medical treatments for astronauts but they will also assist with a better understanding of the biological agents involved in the assimilation of drugs in general and the action of the transporters in illnesses such as cancer and AIDS.


Schneider Electric, IMIM Foundation CIM Interempresa, solvent Biotechnology, TecniSample, Lloveras, Safety Engineers, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Col. School of Industrial Engineers of Barcelona.

Sergi Vaquer has worked as a crew physician at the Crew Medical Support Office of the ESA’s European Astronaut Centre, Cologne, and is currently a resident physician at the Hospital Parc Taulí in Sabadell (affiliated with the UAB) and a researcher at the Municipal Institute for Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar).

Arnau Rabadán is studying for the Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at the UPC-Barcelona Tech’s College of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (EUETIB) and the scientific equipment used in this experiment will be the subject of his final thesis. is currently on a research scholarship at the Fundació CIM.

Elisabet Cuyàs is a doctoral student in Biochemistry at the UAB Faculty of Science and a researcher with the Human Pharmacology and Neurosciences Clinical Research Group of the Municipal Institute for Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar).

Albert González is studying for the Diploma in Electrical Engineering at the UPC-Barcelona Tech’s College of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (EUETIB) and the electrification and automation of the scientific equipment being used in this experiment will be the subject of his final thesis. He is currently receiving a research scholarship from the CIM Foundation.

Felip Fenollosa is Deputy Director of the Foundation and associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the UPC-Barcelona Tech, supervised the engineering, manufacturing and tuning of the equipment for the flight.