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The Biggest Risk Is Not Taking Any Risk | HIS Challenge, BORYUNG

EO11:30Added Aug 31, 2026

This episode features HIS Challenge by BORYUNG – the pioneering space healthcare initiative connecting innovators with NASA and 40+ global partners. Since la...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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Transcript format

  1. Intro

  2. 00:01Space is here. This is not science fiction.  It's no longer rocket science. Space is is an
  3. 00:07opportunity for a lot of biotechs, opportunity  for pharmaceutical companies. In the past,
  4. 00:12it takes about $50,000 per 1 kilogram  experimentation. But with the SpaceX, Falcon 9,
  5. 00:18if they launch Starship, which is the latest  vehicle, it's going to be dropped down about $500.
  6. 00:242030 will be the next milestone. people live more  than six months a year in space because commercial
  7. 00:31space station will replace international space  station. So it gives a lot of potential and room
  8. 00:37for many people to utilize this assets. I think  people need to start to think about the space
  9. 00:42station as a laboratory for doing research. As  long as you have a path, it might not be a FedEx
  10. 00:47truck or a plane. This is a rocket that you're  sending to the space station. And it was so cool
  11. 00:53that your product is on that rocket. This is no  longer a science fiction. This is an opportunity
  12. 01:00to really leverage a unique platform for drug  development and drug manufacturing. [Music]

  13. Building the Bridge to Space

  14. 01:22My name is Jack Lim, executive director at Borang.  Borang is a pharmaceutical company. The way we are
  15. 01:28doing is kind of age of a discovery from like 15th  17th centuries that the European people explore to
  16. 01:35different American continents. I think it's the  same type of things. We are currently confined in
  17. 01:41blue marble earth. But we all have our mission  to explore space. That's why we providing our
  18. 01:47service as a pharmaceutical but also looking at  space as new growth opportunity as a business wise
  19. 01:53but also provide the right solution for humans  exploration in space as well. NASA commissioner
  20. 02:01Bill Nelson said rockets runs on fuel. NASA  runs on inspiration. That inspiration will lead
  21. 02:08more and more people to space. That's why we are  here. We need to be ready to send people to space
  22. 02:15safely. That's what all carrying space is all  about. Humans in space challenge is about the uh
  23. 02:23open innovation global challenge program. We are  actually trying to discover the novel technology
  24. 02:29who actually providing the business service as  a startup company and also the researchers who's
  25. 02:35willing to send their experimentation in space  in terms of biomedical space healthcare. So we
  26. 02:41see the space as a new opportunity but we didn't  know where to start in the beginning. We started
  27. 02:47contacting with all the expertise all over the  world. Luckily I got in touch with one of our
  28. 02:52alumni who is actually the ex astronaut in NASA  and also professor in Georgia Tech and I asked
  29. 02:59a lot of questions and we did a lot of the zoom  meetings back then and then she kind of help us
  30. 03:05to frame what type of problem we should solve. We  kind of divide into two scopes. The one sector we
  31. 03:11call critical problem in space which is we're  trying to solve the healthc care issues for our
  32. 03:17future astronaut in space. The human explorer  in space there's going to be many health issues
  33. 03:22that we occur from human body and we're trying to  solve that problem first and second one we trying
  34. 03:28to we call the critical problem on earth which is  using space microgravity condition to solve many
  35. 03:35different kinds of health issues on earth such as  cancer or aging related issues. So mainly we have
  36. 03:40a two scope to solve the problems through our  humans in space challenge and then luckily got
  37. 03:46in touch with NASA HRP the human research program  they actually study very similar type of problem
  38. 03:52they were trying to solve when you think about  NASA we automatically think that they're going
  39. 03:56to have all different type of solutions right  we saw their current work in terms of the human
  40. 04:02exploration and how human body risk in terms of  low earth orbit or lunar and Mars are different
  41. 04:09kind condition when you send people to Mars it  takes at least like six months and so during the
  42. 04:15time period of course there are many things you  should be considered in that case NASA didn't
  43. 04:20even know how to solve that problem so even  NASA doesn't know the problem then there might
  44. 04:25be something that as a commercial company can  contribute the value with all different kinds of
  45. 04:30the people all over the world but as a commercial  company we can we are more flexible working on
  46. 04:34this type of initiative so we luckily got in touch  with them and then they became one of our judges
  47. 04:39in 2022 and then the partnership kind of  escalated. We uh get in touch with the Stanford,
  48. 04:45MIT, Harvard Medical School. Everything just  starts kind of hard in the beginning. The main
  49. 04:50reason that how we started and how we actually  be able to connect with all these you know very
  50. 04:56prestigious partners is because nobody started  this type of initiative before. [Music] We can

  51. Pioneers Join Our Mission

  52. 05:06actually use not only just research test bed in  space but there's actually company who's trying
  53. 05:12to use as manufacturing platform. One of my  favorite company called the lambda vision.
  54. 05:17They actually developing new artificial retina in  space. Lambda vision participated in the human in
  55. 05:24space challenge in 2023. We had to come up with  a pitch competition and we pitched in front of a
  56. 05:29a large audience. You know people came by and  and talked to us at our our individual booths.
  57. 05:33We were a winner that year that supported us to  do some additional research in microgravity. We
  58. 05:39were really excited about the results that we got  from space because what we're showing is that we
  59. 05:43can actually get a more even stable product. What  we did is we took a those open beaker experiments.
  60. 05:50You cannot fly open solutions on the International  Space Station. Flew that in a box. So the box that
  61. 05:56we're flying is about the size of a shoe box. I  didn't think it was possible. It's just wasn't
  62. 06:01first thing on my my brain. There's actually some  of the case that some of the startups they haven't
  63. 06:06thought about applying their current prototype  model to kind of apply to space. They never
  64. 06:11thought about that. But space will be you know  kind of next opportunity for them to develop kind
  65. 06:17of long-term phase. Our main road is we connect  the right teams to right partners so that they
  66. 06:23can send their R&D and research to right platform.  When it comes to fund we have a different model
  67. 06:29like one equity state. We actually invest their  equity in the company but at the same time we
  68. 06:34also investment model called orbital launch  funding which we cover their space launch cost
  69. 06:39for their specific experimentation. The people  who apply those program we have a right procedure
  70. 06:44for our judge process. So each individual judge  they actually review each individual applicants
  71. 06:50and then mostly equity state companies obviously  we see them as a investment opportunity. So our
  72. 06:57venture capital partners also looking at taking  a look at that company as a potential for the
  73. 07:01investment. I mean running our business initiative  is a very smart way because we only invest like
  74. 07:06$100,000 for startup equity but at the same time  we connect with your most space agency like NASA
  75. 07:13European space agency issa we supported them  through the funding and two we have our internal
  76. 07:20own accelerator program it's called humans and  space accelerator program we are not space company
  77. 07:25we're not fully expertise of space healthcare but  we know how to create actual the platform that we
  78. 07:31can connect right people with our right partners  not only just the research level but also the
  79. 07:36uh the platform and utilizing space environment  for those people as well. This is a really good
  80. 07:42time to get involved and and we're also building  something from the ground up doing a blueprint of
  81. 07:48of the future in 10 20 years. You're you're being  pioneering not just what you need today but what
  82. 07:53are you going to need in 5 years? What are you  going to need in 10 years? Where do you think
  83. 07:56the industry is going to go? When you're doing  new things it can be very challenging. It doesn't
  84. 08:01always feel like you're doing the right things,  but if you're stagnant, you're not going to grow.

  85. Now It's Your Turn

  86. 08:09One of the thing that I realized running the  program was how individual researchers and
  87. 08:15startup actually work on different kinds of  problems when it comes to space exploration
  88. 08:21also trying to solve the problem on earth.  We saw how they are scattered, how they are
  89. 08:27not be able to connect each others because each  individual technology and research has a lot of
  90. 08:32values and potential but they just don't know  how to connect with right partners. I think
  91. 08:37we have a pretty good network in terms of all the  prestigious university level and also space agency
  92. 08:42level historically conduct numerous space related  research before. So we can make sure that connect
  93. 08:48the right people who is a very kind of similar  research experiments with our expertise. One of
  94. 08:54the great things though about being part of these  challenges are the people that you meet. The only
  95. 08:59way we're going to be successful is if we all work  together. In order to do something very very bold,
  96. 09:04very very visionary. You need to have a lot of  thought leaders in a room working together to
  97. 09:10accomplish that. So many of the people that I met  during that experience uh we still are sharing
  98. 09:16ideas every place that I've gone the energy from  the other entrepreneurs uh the excitement in the
  99. 09:22space that also helps to keep you going. When  people talk about space, it's um very complicated.
  100. 09:29It's very difficult concept to understand. But the  International Space Station, it's actually built
  101. 09:341998. It's about 20 years from now. The way we're  trying to have the space healthcare ecosystem,
  102. 09:41not only just running the humans in space  challenge, but actually we trying to secure
  103. 09:45the right infrastructure to provide the experiment  service platform. It's not like a new concept. I
  104. 09:52think it has been established from ever since  International Space Station built, but there's
  105. 09:58no one actually trying to play the way we're  doing it. So that's I think a pretty big value.
  106. 10:06Don't be afraid to take the risk. Be bold, be  visionary. This is a very uh you know pivotal
  107. 10:12time for for space research. But I would also  tell them that opportunities in space are not just
  108. 10:19for scientists and engineers. Right now there are  opportunities in space for people developing space
  109. 10:25suits for people sewing in space for insurance  in space hotel and hospitality anthropology in
  110. 10:31space. Where you start might not be where you you  end. I think the most of startup they change their
  111. 10:37business model very frequently but I think um  space will be you know kind of next opportunity
  112. 10:43for them to develop kind of long-term phase. I  want those startup out there to look at space
  113. 10:50as a new opportunity or testify or apply your  current business model or your current technology
  114. 10:56in space. Everything that we're doing it's pretty  much like a first step. Space healthcare is a very
  115. 11:02rare topic but at the same time we are leveraging  healthcare society to break into space economy
  116. 11:10space industry is obviously intersect between two  industry in one program together. I don't think
  117. 11:28[Music]