BIOTESC (Biotechnology Space Support Center) is a space research centre working on behalf of the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

and attached to the

Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts () (HSLU) is one of seven regional, public-funded public university, universities of applied sciences founded in 1997 in its current form. The University was called University of Applied Sciences of ...

(HSLU). BIOTESC is specialized in space research and biotechnologies:. On behalf of the

, the centre offers assistance for the preparation, execution and post-flight analysis of many space experiments generally related to

biotechnologies Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists in the field are kn ...

information technologies Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data and information processing, and storage. Information technolo ...

History

BIOTESC is part of the Space Biology Group, founded in 1977 at the

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

. In January 2013, the group moved to Lucerne University. They relocated from

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Hergiswil Hergiswil is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Nidwalden in Switzerland. History Hergiswil is first mentioned around 1303-09 as ''ze Hergenswile''. Geography Hergiswil has an area, , of . ...

, where they moved into their own building. In 2018 they relocated in another place but stayed in the same city.

Payloads and Experiments

ISS-57 Alexander Gerst with CIMON in the Columbus lab

On board the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

BIOTESC is responsible for several payloads in the European module

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio * Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...

: the CIMON robot, AstroPi computers, Kubik, an incubator for biological experiments, and the

Biolab Biolab (Biological Experiment Laboratory) is a single-rack multi-user science payload designed for use in the '' Columbus'' laboratory of the International Space Station. Biolab supports biological research on small plants, small invertebrates, ...

. Several experiments on the ISS have been managed from the center as of 2021; including research on

rotifer The rotifers (, from Latin 'wheel' and 'bearing'), sometimes called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic Coelom#Pseudocoelomates, pseudocoelomate animals. They were first describ ...

organisms and

Arthrospira ''Arthrospira'' and ''Limnospira'' are two genera of free-floating filamentous cyanobacteria characterized by cylindrical, multicellular trichomes in an open left-hand helix. A dietary supplement is made from ''L. platensis'' and ''L. maxima' ...

(

Cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria ( ) are a group of autotrophic gram-negative bacteria that can obtain biological energy via oxygenic photosynthesis. The name "cyanobacteria" () refers to their bluish green (cyan) color, which forms the basis of cyanobacteri ...

s) BIOTESC is one of the several ESA User Support and Operations Centers (USOCs) in Europe.

References

{{Portal, Spaceflight Space research European space programmes European Space Agency