NASA Maneuvers For A Linkup With NIH

With its traditional bent toward physical sciences, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has never funded biological studies adequately, and biological investigators have not taken space science seriously, space agency officials say. So, to boost biology into a high-profile orbit within the space program while delivering payoffs to National Institutes of Health-funded investigators on the ground, NASA administrator Daniel Goldin and NIH director Bernadine Healy recently signed an agreement to make it easier for scientists from the two agencies to collaborate. The agreement makes it possible for NIH-funded biologists to get experiments into orbit and to tap into NASA expertise. And, for the first time, outside investigators will have access to NASA ground facilities for their own research. In return, the agreement set up a mechanism for space agency scientists to suggest research projects that would be funded through NIH grants. NIH officials are vague about how much money would be set aside for research with a space component, which biologist Richard Sprott, associate director of the National Institute on Aging, describes as "experiments of mutual interest" to NASA and NIH. "Frankly, we want to test the waters," Sprott says, adding that grant levels would depend on the number and quality of applications that come in as biologists become aware of the possibilities of space-oriented research and begin suggesting projects. Since August 28, space scientists of all stripes have converged on Washington, D.C., for the World Space Congress, an event that backers hope will draw attention to 35 years of space exploration. "This is the first time all the parts of the space community have joined together," says Gail Armstrong of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which helped organize the nine- day event, scheduled to end September 5, that is being held at the Washington Convention Center. Several hundred papers are being presented on topics that include satellite observation of the Earth's environment, human exploration of Mars, the problems of developing multilingual communication systems for future international missions, and the commercial spinoffs of space exploration. A separate, two-day symposium on space biology preceded the congress. The symposium, held August 29-30, reviewed the results of the 1991 shuttle flight dedicated to the life sciences. "For the life sciences, it's a big event," says Ron White, chief scientist in NASA's life sciences division. The aim of the program was "to discuss what we've learned and what we hope to learn from the dedicated biological [shuttle] missions." --T.A. Weightless Cell Biology The motivation for NIH to embrace NASA is obvious, according to Ed Lynch, NIH special assistant for science policy and legislation. "We're interested in studying biological systems in weightless environments as a tool to help us learn more about the underlying processes," says Lynch. "One of the areas that interests us is the effect of weightlessness on cells." Joe Alexander, acting director of NASA's life sciences division, thinks curiosity about zero-gravity experiments--some of which have already been performed on the space shuttle--combined with the advantages of using NASA ground facilities, will convince biological scientists to look beyond the traditional physical science approach at NASA. "From a programmatic or political sense, NASA used to find it tougher to explain life sciences [to Congress] than astronomy," says Alexander, adding that priorities changed as NASA was ordered to establish a space station as a prelude to future space missions, such as a manned mission to Mars, or further. "We cannot take the risk of committing lives until we know the effects of year-long exposure to weightlessness," he says. "Now life sciences is looking like the linchpin of the whole [deep space] effort." But despite this increased focus, annual spending of $150 million a year on the life sciences is only about 1 percent of the overall NASA budget. Frank Sulzman, a physiologist and NASA's chief life scientist, hopes the recently signed agreements will help him leverage his research budget by getting NIH investigators to tackle problems in space biology. "NASA is not in the mainstream of biomedical research," says Sulzman, chief of space medicine and biology. In the past, the focus of spending has been on solving the problems of life support for astronauts in zero gravity, and Sulzman says the agency funds only 300 principal investigators in the life sciences, compared with the 6,001 new and competing grants NIH funded this year. "We've always had the interest of the younger investigators," who are drawn by the allure of space, he says. To continue that attraction, the life sciences division of the space agency has announced postdoctoral fellowships usable at any lab or university for space biology research. And with the NASA-NIH agreement, "we are trying to bring in the greater biological community," says Sulzman. Rheumatologist Lawrence Shulman, director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and one of the key proponents of the NIH-NASA linkage, says that while few scientists will get experiments aboard shuttle missions, any investigator with the interest and the need will soon be able to access NASA research facilities and tap NASA know-how in fields in which space scientists have specialized. Slowing Bone Loss "NASA has a very strong interest in understanding what causes bone demineralization in astronauts," says Shulman. His agency has a similar interest in understanding what makes 25 million Americans, particularly women, suffer from osteoporosis. "It turns out we are after the same answers," he says. "Can exercise slow bone loss? Are there mechanical mechanisms that activate the bone-forming cells? How does lifting a barbell make bone or muscle grow?" Scientists studying bone loss and muscle atrophy in aging Americans stand to learn a lot from collaborating with NASA-funded investigators at research centers such as the University of Texas in Dallas and the University of California, San Francisco. The experience of Millie Hughes-Fulford, a biochemist at UC-San Francisco, demonstrates how the NASA-NIH synergy is already paying off. Last year, Hughes-Fulford became the first woman "payload specialist" aboard the shuttle and performed tissue- culture experiments to learn more about the glucocorticoid hormones released into the bloodstream in certain diseases. According to Hughes-Fulford, earlier research had already established that elevated glucocorticoid levels inhibit the production of prostaglandin E, which has been experimentally observed as part of the process of osteoblast proliferation in rats. What she demonstrated, thanks to the shuttle experiments, was that the same family of hormones--the cortisols--that are known to exist at elevated levels in the bloodstreams of astronauts in zero gravity also inhibit osteoblast proliferation by the same mechanism noted in earlier rat experiments. "These results suggest that the glucocorticoids inhibit bone formation by affecting osteoblast growth," she says. "The data suggest that a substantial portion of this growth inhibition is acting through a prostaglandin-mediated mechanism." Hughes-Fulford notes the benefits of research into the dramatic bone loss experienced in space--astronauts on the 84-day-long Skylab 4 mission lost 4 percent of their bone mass--and the slower process that occurs with age. "Once you know the mechanism that turns the bone cells off, you can begin to look for a way to turn bone growth back on," she says. "By using space, we can get a lot of answers to research questions here on earth. It's like solving a mathematical equation with two unknowns. By removing gravity as a variable, sometimes you get the answer." Biological Shuttle Missions NASA's Alexander says the space shuttle program plans to launch a mission dedicated exclusively to biological experiments once every other year. Between the dedicated missions, investigators needing to put experiments into orbit might hitch a ride on the International Microgravity Laboratory, a European effort with a 50-50 split between life and physical sciences. Casting a pall over the current enthusiasm for life sciences in space has been the possibility that Congress might cancel or delay the space station, making studies of extended weightlessness moot. However, much of the uncertainty was lifted when the House voted on July 29 to provide $1.7 billion in funding for the space station--$300 million less than in FY 1992. NIH officials say that space-borne experiments--while attracting media coverage and promoting interest in science--are not the only benefit that could spring from the NASA-NIH collaboration. In fact, the most lasting breakthrough may come from simply unlocking the gates to NASA ground facilities and letting biologists in. Sprott says research into the vestibular (inner ear) region is one of the areas in which these ground facilities can help life scientists tackle problems with down-to-earth applications. Astronauts floating in zero gravity often experience severe vestibular disorders that have caused motion sickness, and Sprott says many elderly people experience comparable troubles that can make descending stairs a harrowing experience. NASA outsiders will now have access to the NASA Ames Vestibular Research Facility near San Francisco, he says. Joan Vernikos, a pharmacologist and chief of life sciences at NASA Ames, says that in the vestibular lab, subjects sit in specially engineered chairs that mimic such motions as an accelerating car or a spinning merry-go-round. As they whoosh or whirl, instruments monitor subtle changes in the subject's inner ear. NASA has been using the facility to teach astronauts to control space motion sickness through biofeedback, but Vernikos is anxious to have gerontologists adapt NASA tools and techniques to help the elderly. "Vestibular research is one of the most exciting and fastest- growing fields in biomedical research," she says. "And we have the best facilities in the world here, things no university could or should have to duplicate. Why not invite the best people here?" Tom Abate is a freelance writer based in San Francisco.

NASA Maneuvers For A Linkup With NIH

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