Exomedicine...research of medicine in microgravity of environment(space)

1. Mr. Debaprasad Ghosh
Asst. Prof.
KSOP

2. “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.

3. Disease
mitigation
Health
enhancement
in space!

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Microgravityresearchpossibilities….
Repeatable experiments
Gene expression
Protein crystallization
Drug research
Cancer research
Stem Cell Research
3d cellular models
Tissue Regeneration
Vaccine research
DNA Regulation
Drug Designing
Structural Biology
Bio-separations
Controlled Drug
Delivery
Microbes And Small
Organisms
Cell Cultures
Diabetes
Infectious Diseases
other life threatening
and debilitating
conditions
Nano-medicine

8. 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

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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

14. Biomedical R&D in Space:
International Space Station (ISS)

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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 Agency
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)
Sponsoring Organization
National Laboratory (NL)
ISS Expedition Duration
March 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.

19. Bioculture System: ISS
The 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

20. 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.