SynBioBeta Speaker
Heath Mills
CSO
Rhodium Scientific
YEAR
25
May 2025, SynBioBeta
Speaker
Dr. Heath J. Mills is an extreme environment microbial ecologist with academic degrees from Duke University and the Georgia Institute of Technology and has held two faculty positions at Texas A&M University and University of Houston. As the current Chief Scientific Officer for Rhodium Scientific, he leads initiatives to expand terrestrial and space research capacities into the advanced commercial biotechnology sector. Dr. Mills has been a Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on over 20 International Space Station science and engineering missions. Recently, Mills is on the Advisory Board for GEN-Space, Schull Institute and was appointed to the ISS National Laboratory User Advisory Committee as the Chair of the Technology Development Subcommittee.
SynBioBeta 2025 - Keynote
Space Biotech - Connecting Science to Space through SynBio, the Rhodium Space BioBankTM, and the world's first Orbital-Earth Reentry Vehicle dedicated to Biomanufacturing
Rhodium Scientific, as America's first commercial space biotech company and DARPA's in-space biomanufacturing performer, we've created the scientific path to increase biomanufacturing in space through: 1) the Rhodium Space BioBankTM and 2) Zephyr, a Biomanufacturing orbital to Earth-return spaceflight vehicle in partnership with Intuitive Machines. The Rhodium Space Biobank currently contains over 1,500 specimens of spaceflight-flown samples. Rhodium will continuously bank biological and advanced material space samples on every rocket launching to the ISS from now until 2032. For the Zephyr vehicle, Rhodium is responsible for 100kg of Biomanufacturing payload design, science inputs, and client pipeline. We are in the critical design phase, looking for input and collaboration from biomanufacturing stakeholders, miniaturized (robust) analytics, and an AI science component These near-term solutions will enable the rise, access and advancement of commercial bioscience in space.
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