‘This year’s been one of the greatest for Evolve’ – First local research experiment in space to return to Malta

Project Maleth, Malta’s first-ever research experiment to go to space, is set to return to the island later this week marking a first in Maltese science.

The Evolve-funded project spent more than a month on the International Space Station (ISS) in hope of rendering results that will help scientists develop new ways to treat diabetes and its symptoms.

“This year has truly been one of the greatest for Evolve and for Maltese science in general.” Evolve Managing Director Christopher Busuttil Delbridge said.

“I am confident that Project Maleth will lay the necessary groundwork for more cutting edge and breakthrough science projects in the future,” he continued.

Evolve, one of Malta’s leading and fastest-growing science companies, donated €30,000 to fund Project Maleth through the Research, Innovation, and Development Trust of the University of Malta.

“The next part is the most interesting part. We’ve had a lot of fun, but now the hard work begins,” Project Maleth Leader Joseph Borg said.

“We will hanldle the biocube in our laboratories at the University of Malta, take small samples from each of the six experiments, and streak on agar plates to see and compare the microbiology with the ones based on Earth,” Prof Borg continued.

The Project Maleth Leader highlighted that that is just a fraction of the work that needs to be put into the experiment from this point on.

“The more intensive work will entail harnessing the full genome of both human skin cells and the microbiome for testing and sequencing by the Next Generation Sequencing equipment,” Prof Borg concluded.