Blood-test firm wins €1m space station contract

A CORK company is boldly going where no other company has gone before after it won a €1 million contract to develop a new blood-testing device for astronauts onboard the International Space Station.

The European Space Agency (ESA) needs to get instant laboratory-grade results for a myriad of health conditions, both on the space station and on human spaceflight missions.

It selected Radisens Diagnostics to add a thyroid test to a point-of-care device currently in development at its facility in Bishopstown.

Back on earth, the technology will enable a doctors to take a finger-prick of blood and test patients for diabetes, heart disease, liver and kidney damage and thyroid conditions in their surgery with instant results. Future developments could enable the diagnosis of heart attacks, early stage cancers such as prostate, infectious diseases, and viruses.

Radisens recently announced a strategic partnership with the National Health Service in Britain to integrate a kidney test to their device, decentralising up to 15 million blood tests from British hospitals annually into the GP surgery.

Jerry O’Brien, Radisens chief , said: “This contract from the ESA is a significant endorsement of our ‘sample-to-answer’ device and the breadth of blood tests it can offer. We are delighted to formalise our strategic partnership with ESA with the support of Enterprise Ireland and look forward to working on the application of our technology to terrestrial and space healthcare diagnostic needs.”

Research Minister Sean Sherlock said the company’s success was “the most recent example” of an Irish company reaping significant benefits from Ireland’s membership of the ESA through Enterprise Ireland.

“It is encouraging to see that Irish small and medium sized enterprises are developing a high profile as providers of innovative solutions for use in the European Space Programme,” he said.