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Worms Ready for Space Mission November 9, 2009
The crew prepares the Space Shuttle Atlantis for a 2009 mission. This month, 4000 worms will be onboard Atlantis to help experts better understand human physiology. Photo by: NASA | When the Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched later this month 4,000 microscopic worms will be onboard. Their mission: To help experts in human physiology at the Univ. of Nottingham understand more about what triggers the body to build--and lose--muscle.
The worms are bound for the International Space Station (ISS) where they will experience the same weightless conditions that can cause dramatic muscle loss in astronauts. The research will be carried out onboard the ISS in the Japanese Experiment Module known as 'Kibo'.
Nathaniel Szewczyk, from the University's Institute of Clinical Research in Derby, studies the signals that control muscle protein degradation. His work centers on the microscopic worm, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). These worms are the perfect substitute for studying long-term changes in human physiology because they suffer from muscle atrophy--muscle loss--under many of the same conditions that people do.
Muscle atrophy is one of the major health concerns for astronauts but this research will also help scientists understand more about the condition which also affects the bedridden, people with muscular dystrophy and diabetes, people immobilized by casts and the elderly.
Szewczyk is no stranger to space flight. This will be his fourth space worm mission. This month's reservation has been negotiated through the Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency.
The Nottingham scientists will be working in collaboration with Atsushi Higashitani from Tohoku Univ., Sendai, Japan. Higashitani is the Principal Investigator of the CERISE (C. Elegans RNAi In Space Experiment) payload and will be based in Florida for the duration of the flight to co-ordinate all aspects of the running of the payload's experiments.
Szewczyk says: "The CERISE payload is an important space medicine experiment as it will establish if RNAi, which was the subject of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine, is a viable technique for altering the biological response to space flight. For example, some of our worms will be treated with RNAi against specific proteases to see if we can stop muscle protein degradation in space. However, this is just one of many experimental conditions that Atsushi will be overseeing and I can't say enough how grateful I am that Atsushi is dealing with the myriad of problems and paperwork that come with managing any space flight experiment."
The C. elegans was the first multi-cellular organism to have its genetic structure completely mapped and many of its 20,000 genes perform the same functions as those in humans. Two thousand of these genes have a role in promoting muscle function and 50 to 60% of these have very obvious human counterparts.
His researcher Tim Etheridge has been given the task of preparing the worms for their journey to the ISS, which is roughly 200 miles from the Earth. The worms have been carefully selected and brought to a dormant state for the journey.
They will be traveling in special cell culture bags and will be brought back from their dormant state with the release of food. They will be exposed to conditions in space for four days before being frozen in preparation for the return journey. The effect of this journey on their muscle mass will be investigated once the worms are returned to the University's laboratories in Derby.
The Kibo lab makes use of the weightless conditions experienced in orbit for the study of biomedicine and material sciences. The Univ. of Nottingham experiment will be part of the Japanese CERISE payload and is being funded as part of a $1 million NIH grant to investigate the genetic basis of muscle atrophy and the Medical Research Council.
Biological experiments in space need life support - oxygen, temperature control and pressure - so competition for space on manned flights is fierce and in short supply.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis is due to take off from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2009. Both Szewczyk and Etheridge will be travelling to Florida to see the worms safely onboard the space shuttle.
Source: Univ. of Nottingham
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