BioHarvest Sciences Inc has appointed renowned astronaut Chris Hadfield to its board of advisors as part of a drive to leverage its biotech technology platform to provide essential nutrition and active ingredients for space exploration and potential new settlements in space.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company said that Hadfield brings 40 years of scientific experience to the Canadian-Israeli biotech firm which has developed and patented a plant bio-cell technology—BioFarming, capable of growing the active and beneficial plant-based ingredients at an industrial scale, without the need to grow the plant itself.
"Chris's unparalleled experience will help marry our plant cellular biology expertise with space science," BioHarvest CEO Ilan Sobel said in a statement. "He is a great addition to our advisory board at this phase of our growth, and he'll help us in our drive to be a global biotech leader.”
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The company said that its BioFarming technology has the potential to efficiently produce primary metabolites such as premium proteins that are needed to provide required nutrition for humans to live in space. It can also produce antioxidant compounds with antioxidant activity that can help reduce human cellular stress and prevent damage caused by microgravity and ionizing radiation, which is a critical health challenge experienced by astronauts while in space.
"BioHarvest's proprietary platform technology has the potential to make a significant impact on the world as well as in bio-space science," Hadfield added. "The company has built a world-class team of scientists, and I look forward to working with them, with my fellow advisors, to scale BioHarvest's solution."
The Canadian-born reserve colonel is an astronaut, engineer, and RCAF pilot who has flown three space missions, done two spacewalks, and commanded the International Space Station.
Hadfield was named the top test pilot in both the US Air Force and the US Navy, and served as NASA's Director of Operations in Russia.
BioHarvest recently announced revenues of US$688,000 in the third quarter of 2021, representing 44% growth over the previous quarter, based on promising early demand of its flagship red grape-based VINIA product.
Contact Ritika at ritika@proactiveinvestors.com