Salmonella vaccine lift-off

Written byEdyta Zielinska

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A space biotech company hopes its __Salmonella__ vaccine project will pave the way for other lucrative space biotech projects. The company, SPACEHAB, launched its proof-of-concept experiment as part of the space shuttle Discovery's payload on Saturday (May 31). In linkurl:April,;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54609/ I reported that SPACEHAB's CEO Tom Pickens talked up the potential for space biotech at a Congressional hearing on the future of the linkurl:International Space Station.;http://science.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1928 SPACEHAB is starting with __Salmonella__ vaccine production, Yahoo News linkurl:reported.;http://science.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1928 Research into a __Salmonella__ vaccine has been hampered partly because the bacterium quickly loses virulence on earth, making it difficult to find an appropriate strain for vaccination. However, a linkurl:recent study;http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=17901201 showed that __Salmonella__ becomes more virulent in space , which could help scientists create a linkurl:potent vaccine strain.;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53627/ So researchers are sending up several potential vaccine strains to test which might be the most effective. If the experiment works, other commercial research would presumably follow -- especially if the space community is able to simplify the logistics of sending up commercial payloads.

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