NIH in space?

NIH-sponsored research could be taking place on NASA's International Space Station in several years, if the two agencies can get an agreement off the ground.As part of a national laboratory initiative, NASA plans to open up half the U.S. portion of the ISS for use by public or private agencies. The NIH and NASA are drafting an agreement that would allow experiments to be sent to the station from 2011 until 2014 or later.So far, no specific ISS experiments have been planned, but the NIH and NASA met in December 2006 to talk about possible research areas, which include osteoporosis, muscle wasting, immune dysfunction and stem cell function.Proponents of the idea say results could yield discoveries that advance human health on Earth. But critics say that they doubt the questions asked in space will result in advances for life science and that space projects should not be prioritized in light of current NIH funding woes.NASA has committed to covering the costs of operation on the ISS after construction is completed, an estimated $1.5 billion per year, and does not plan to charge a fee for station use. Three NASA crewmembers man the space station now, and the number could increase to six by 2009, said Bill Gerstenmaier, administrator of space operations at NASA, in a June 25 press teleconference. Experiments would be controlled robotically or by the NASA personnel, said Mark Uhran, an administrator of the ISS, in the teleconference. The U.S. portion of the ISS is scheduled for completion by 2010 and about half of this area, which amounts to 10 refrigerator-sized racks in a pressurized laboratory and several sites in the unpressurized environment, could be available for public and private use. The NIH has not told NASA how much space it might want, but so far has expressed interest in the pressurized section, Uhran told The Scientist. NIH researchers would pay for their own research as well as transporting the experiments to the ISS. Stephen Katz, director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, who is spearheading the agreement, declined to estimate how much such research would cost the NIH.Finding cost-effective ways to transport experiments to the station remains a rate-limiting step for success, according to a NASA report to Congress issued in May. NASA is working with a new U.S. commercial orbital transportation service to determine possible costs, according to the report.The American Association of Medical Colleges, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, and the American Medical Association all declined to comment on the idea of the NIH sending experiments to space. Proponents of the agreement said that space could offer a unique cell culture environment for studying diseases.Cells cultured in both simulated and actual space environments, compared with Earth environments, grow in a more spherical manner, which is closer to how cells grow inside the body, said Rocky Tuan, chief of the Cartilage Biology and Orthopaedics Branch at NIAMS. Tuan, who has sent experiments on shuttle missions, said actual space provides a more legitimate test of gravity's effect on health than space simulations. But he added that experiments in space might yield results similar to those conducted under simulated conditions. Researchers have studied tissues in space simulation, a bioreactor that consists of a rotating soup-sized can that houses growing cells in a constant free-fall. Such simulation has been used to culture cells in order to study allergies, kidney disease and other health problems. But differences in fluid forces between simulated and actual space can cause artifacts, such as apoptosis, in cells grown in the bioreactor, John Jessup, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute who is helping draft the agreement, wrote in an Email to The Scientist. "It's a gamble," said Tuan, who participated in the NIH's December meeting. "Money is tight, but this [opportunity] is pretty unique. To drop the opportunity would be short-sighted." Space accelerates cellular mechanisms related to aging and can serve as an environment to study countermeasures that delay these deleterious processes, which may be effective on Earth, Jessup added. In addition, he noted, studying gene expression profiles of cells and crewmembers in space could reveal new factors involved in disease.Jessup and Tuan, who have both sent experiments on short shuttle missions, agree that sending experiments into space takes a tremendous amount of preparation and paperwork, not to mention the cost. "It's currently approximately $10,000 a pound every time we send up a payload to the ISS," said Cheryl Nickerson, an infectious disease researcher at Arizona State University, who sent salmonella to the ISS in September. She said she has sent 30 to 70 pounds up to space at a time, adding that there are limitations on what you can fly and crew time for doing experiments. But Gregg Easterbrook, a visiting economics fellow at the Brookings Institution who has criticized NASA's budget priorities, told The Scientist that $15-20,000 per pound is a more realistic cost for transport because most shipments to the space station are not full. Add that cost to your experiment, he said, and "it rapidly becomes nonsensical." He added that he does not believe the NIH has an experiment planned that would justify such spending. John Carethers, chief of the gastroenterology division at the University of California San Diego, who has voiced concerns about the effects of flat NIH funds, wrote in an Email that funding experiments on the ISS "may not be the best move" in the current funding climate. "As the environment is already tight for scientists to compete for NIH funding, shifting funds away for a NASA agreement, while important for space research, will likely drive additional young researchers away from traditional biomedical research due to ever-shrinking budgets and the difficulties in achieving an award."In response, Jessup wrote that funding space research should not be viewed as a shift in funds because the NIH will only support research that is consistent with individual institute goals and objectives. "That is likely to mean that things that occur in space may have application on Earth and may provide insights into mechanisms that may be helpful on Earth," he wrote.NASA no longer pursues research that doesn't directly relate to its mission, in order to concentrate on space exploration, Uhran said. He added that the initiative taken by NASA is not directly related to the 50% funding cut to NASA's astrobiology program in Fiscal 2007.Kelly Rae Chi mail@the-scientist.comLinks within this article:NIH-NASA December meeting on space-related health research http://www.niams.nih.gov/ne/reports/sci_wrk/2006/nasa_summary.htmStephen Katz http://www.niams.nih.gov/an/mission/director.htmNASA report to Congress http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=24379Rocky Tuan http://www.niams.nih.gov/rtbc/labs_branches/cbob/personnel/tuanr.htmJohn Jessup http://explore.georgetown.edu/experts/index.cfm?Action=View&NetID=jmj25Cheryl Nickerson http://www.biodesign.asu.edu/people/bios/cheryl-nickerson/Gregg Easterbrook http://www.brookings.edu/scholars/geasterbrook.htmG. Easterbrook, "Moon baseless: NASA can'texplain why we need a lunar colony," Slate, Dec. 6, 2006. http://www.slate.com/id/2155164/fr/G. Easterbrook, "It's the earth, stupid: NASA's new budget blows it," Slate, March 29, 2006. http://www.slate.com/id/2138943/John Carethers http://cancer.ucsd.edu/summaries/jcarethers.aspT. Agres, "'Looming crisis' from NIH budget," The Scientist, March 20, 2007. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/52946/ T. Agres, "Astrobiology under assault," The Scientist, March 2, 2006. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23183/

NIH in space?

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