EXOMEDICINE: THE MEDICINAL

REVOLUTION IN THE MICRO-GRAVITY ENVIRONMENT OF

SPACE

Mr. Debaprasad Ghosh

Asst. Prof.

KSOP

“Study And Exploration Of Medical Solutions In The

Microgravity Environment Of

Space.” The purpose is to discover advancements in disease mitigation and health enhancement through biomedical investigations under microgravity conditions.

EXOMEDICINE

Disease mitigation Health enhancement in space!

Evolution of Life on Earth Under Constant

Gravity Of all the environmental variables that

changed to shape the evolution of life on Earth, gravity did not changed since the beginning.

During their evolution over billions of years, the form and function of all organisms on Earth have adapted to the force of Earth’s gravity and these characteristics are encoded in their genes: up-down asymmetry, structural strength, size of force-producing elements and sensory systems.

Terraforms And Constant Gravity

Organism that has evolved under a 1-g environment on earth expects to experience the physical effects of unit gravity and any perturbation in the internal and external environment will initiate a cascade of changes in

cell shape, organelle orientation, and membrane architecture as well as culture conditions such as sedimentation, convection, transport processes, hydrostatic pressure, and boundary conditions.

Terraforms And Constant Gravity….

when biomedical research is conducted in Space, in so-called microgravity environments, certain earthbound limitations disappear, new and different findings are made, and living organisms behave very differently.

These can be exploited for a variety of important applications.

Microgravity research possibilities….

Repeatable experiments

Gene expression

Protein crystallization

Drug research

Cancer research

Stem Cell Research

3d cellular models

Tissue Regeneration

Vaccine research

DNA RegulationDrug Designing

Structural Biology

Bio-separations

Controlled Drug DeliveryMicrobes And Small Organisms

Cell Cultures

Diabetes

Infectious Diseases

other life threatening and debilitating conditionsNano-medicine

Potential of Exomedicine Research

Experience with crystal growth in microgravity shows potential to yield much better results.

Crystals grown in space has higher degree of structural order Crystals grown on Earth.

In roughly 40 space investigations, close to 50% of the cases showed better protein crystals than any produced on Earth.

Protein crystallization has three major revenue-generating applications: Structural biology and drug design Bioseparations Controlled drug delivery

Applications for Drug Development **

Against all odds, several experiments survived the 2002 explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

One of them was a protein crystallization experiment sponsored by Schering Plough.

When analyzing the results, scientists discovered a crystalline form of interferon that they had never seen before.

They discovered the crystal was a microgravity product and a new structure of interferon that was more medically effective in combating hepatitis C and produced fewer side effects.

Based in large part on this information, Schering Plough reformulated one of its top selling pharmaceuticals, received FDA approval, and the new drug is now being sold.

** taken from Space Biotech, synopsis prepared by NASA for the Alliance for Commercial Enterprises and Education in Space.

It may be possible to grow nearly perfect protein crystals in space for studies of protein

In the microgravity environment of the Space Shuttle, scientists have shown some improved capability to grow macromolecular crystals with a higher degree of order. Using a process called "X-ray crystallography," they can map the structure of proteins and advance the fundamental understanding of how they work.

Protein crystals grown on the U.S. Space Shuttle or Russian Space Station, Mir.

NASA studying the fungal pathogen C. albicans aboard space shuttle Atlantis.

Astronaut Nicole Stott works with the high-density protein crystal growth (HDPCG) apparatus

Astronaut Larry DeLucas, payload specialist, handles a Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) sample

Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa with the JAXA Protein Crystal Growth

STS-26 Protein Growth (PCG) Experiment

Saibo Experiment Rack that includes a glovebox with microscope that isolates the organisms being studied, and Cell Biology Experiment Facility that includes incubator and centrifuges

Biomedical R&D in Space:

International Space Station (ISS)

International Space Station

Cell cycle studies, genetic expression and other research on the International Space Station has provided valuable work into kidney disorders, cancer, salmonella, MRSA, among others.

Exomedicine Institute Space is a unique environment and most

researchers do not have the specialized expertise or time to learn how to conduct successful research in microgravity.

Exomedicine Institute takes a fast-paced interdisciplinary approach to design, development, flight qualification, launch analysis and completion of orbital experiments.

Microtechnologies open the door for small and inexpensive research platforms.

With funding, the Institute will assemble ten research teams to identify exomedicine investigations in oncology, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, infectious diseases, immunology/autoimmune, neurology, tissue regeneration, cardiology and hematology, stem cell, and aging.

Scope for nanomedicine.

Bioculture System: ISS The Bioculture System is space biological

science incubator for use on the International Space Station (ISS), with the capability of transporting active and stored experiments to ISS.

This incubator supports a wide diversity of tissue, cell, and microbiological cultures and experiment methods to meet any space flight research experiment goals and objectives. 

The facility enables variable duration and long-duration cellular and microbiological experiments on ISS to meet the scientific needs of academic and biotechnology interests.

Bioculture System: ISS OpNom: Bioculture System

Facility Manager(s)Edward Austin, B.S., Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA, United States

Facility Representative(s)Kevin Sato, Ph.D., Project Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States

Developer(s) NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States

Sponsoring Space AgencyNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Sponsoring OrganizationNational Laboratory (NL)

ISS Expedition DurationMarch 2015 - Ongoing

Previous ISS Missions The Bioculture System builds on the technological heritage of the Cell Culture Module (CCM). The CCM flew 21 missions on board the Shuttle. 

Bioculture System: ISSThe System supports cell biology studies  such as

the following:•Basic Cell Physiology• Genetics And Gene Expression• Cell Cycle• Cell Differentiation• 3D Cell Culture• Tissue Biology• Host-pathogen (Bacteria And Virus) Interaction• Immune Cell Function• Latent Virus Activation• Cancer-related, Radiation, Biotech/ Commercial Pharmaceutical Discovery Biology, Drug Discovery, And Drug Compound And Countermeasure Analyses And Testing

Microbiology Studies Supported In The Following:

• Basic Microbe Physiology And Molecular Analyses

• Microbial Virulence

• Long Duration Growth For Genetics

• Drug Therapeutic Countermeasure Analyses

• Biofilm Research

Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg Winner the Nobel prize as

co-inventor of the Hepatitis B vaccine.

A champion of space research in his lifetime.

Director of the Astrobiology Institute at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California

Told his team of researchers that

their projects should be focused not only on achieving a goal, “…but also on expecting the unexpected and assigning resources to pursue unexpected findings to new scientific, applied and commercial outcomes…”

Space Biotech: Hindsight, Insight and Foresight, a presentation given by Lynn Harper, Lead Integrative Studies, Co-Chair Space Commercial Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center, May 17, 2011, to the Exomedicine Workshop sponsored by Kentucky Space, LLC.