Fungi Strain to Travel Up to the ISS

How do you get the most out of your fungi? Send them to space, apparently.

Researchers at the University of Southern California and NASA plan to send four different strains of fungi, Aspergillus nidulans up onto the International Space Station. The fungi space odyssey is happening because of secondary metabolites, which are molecules that some fungi make when they're in a stressful situation. The most famous of these is penicillin, which is a secondary metabolite produced by the genus penicillium. Aspergillus has more than 40 different pathways to make secondary metabolites and the researchers think that exposure to a space environment might cause them to make some new and interesting drugs.

They think these new medicines could help treat cancer, Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. Once they figure out how the fungi makes stuff in space they might be able to produce it here on earth. That puts the fun in fungi.

For NewsBeat Social, I'm Molly Riehl.