Dwayne Brown<br />Headquarters, Washington June 24, 2003<br />(Phone: 202/358-1726)<br /><br /><br />Steve Roy<br />Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.<br />(Phone: 256/544-0034)<br /><br /><br />RELEASE: 03-209<br /><br /><br />NASA BIOTECHNOLOGY ACTIVITIES ENHANCING QUALITY OF LIFE<br /><br /><br /> What do an anthrax-killing device, soybeans in space, <br />artificial bone replacement materials, light-emitting diodes <br />for wound healing, a new medicine to treat bone loss, a <br />water bottle that filters out bacteria, a perfume, and <br />advanced techniques for pharmaceutical drug design have in <br />common?<br /><br /><br />These technologies and others have or are being developed by <br />more than 150 companies that are partners with NASA's Space <br />Product Development Program (SPDP) and its 15 Research <br />Partnership Centers (RPC's) across America. <br /><br /><br />"Industry is interested in many of the same revolutionary <br />products and technologies that NASA needs to explore the <br />universe," said Mark Nall, director of the Space Commerce <br />Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), <br />Huntsville, Ala. "When industry, academia and NASA come <br />together, industry positions itself for growth in new <br />commercial markets, while academia and NASA benefit from <br />innovative research and technological tools for <br />exploration," he said.<br /><br /><br />Space and Osteoporosis Research and Treatment<br /><br /><br />Muscle and bone loss is one health-related problem that both <br />NASA and industry are tackling. Since bone loss occurs more <br />rapidly in space, Amgen, a biotechnology company with <br />headquarters in Thousand Oaks, Calif., used NASA's Space <br />Shuttle as a test bed for a new medication to treat bone <br />loss or osteoporosis. Amgen discovered osteoprotegerin (OPG) <br />in the mid 1990s, and is conducting human clinical trials to <br />evaluate its safety and effectiveness in treating <br />osteoporosis and its ability to maintain bone density in <br />cancer that has metastasized to bone.<br /><br /><br />"OPG appears to prevent bone loss in a variety of diseases, <br />including cancer, and we anticipate that a drug based on <br />this molecule will be effective in preserving bone mass, <br />whether in astronauts or the millions of Americans suffering <br />from osteoporosis," said Dr. Paul Kostenuik, a research <br />scientist in Amgen's Metabolic Disorders group.<br /><br /><br />Amgen works with BioServe Space Technologies Inc., a NASA <br />Research Partnership Center at the University of Colorado, <br />which has completed 23 research missions in 12 years on both <br />the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. <br />BioServe and its industry partners are studying antibiotic <br />production, mammalian cell culture and plant biochemistry.<br /><br /><br />Crops for Space and Earth<br /><br /><br />Identifying unique chemical and genetic traits of plants <br />grown in space and using these traits to develop commercial <br />products on Earth is the specialty of another NASA RPC: the <br />Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR) <br />at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. With the help of <br />astronaut Peggy Whitson, they grew the first crop of <br />soybeans on the Space Station for their industrial partner, <br />Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., a DuPont subsidiary with <br />headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa. <br /><br /><br />This experiment verified that WCSAR-developed plant growth <br />technologies were capable of producing a major agricultural <br />crop in space. The second objective was to see whether <br />microgravity would alter the production of phytochemicals, <br />such as proteins, oils and carbohydrates, and induce new <br />genetic traits in the soybean seeds produced in space. <br />DuPont pursued this research because it could significantly <br />reduce the time and cost of introducing new varieties of <br />crops with new types of phytochemicals to the marketplace.<br /><br /><br />Scientists are performing tests on the seeds brought back to <br />Earth in October 2002. Some of the soybean seeds produced in <br />space were planted and did prove to be viable, producing a <br />new crop of plants with seeds on Earth. Scientists have <br />found some of the space seeds' phytochemical compositions <br />are different than those in seeds harvested from the ground <br />control experiment. Researchers are continuing their <br />analysis to determine if these changes in composition result <br />in positive changes to seed quality. "We want to examine the <br />seeds produced by plants grown on the Space Station to see <br />if they have any unique, desirable traits," said Dr. Tom <br />Corbin, a research scientist for Pioneer Hi-Bred. "If we <br />find changes, then we want to know if the positive traits <br />can be inherited genetically by future generations of plants <br />for the benefit of farmers and consumers." <br /><br /><br />This commercial experiment and others that study plant <br />growth are paving the way for improving crops grown on <br />Earth, as well as potentially feeding people living in <br />space. The Space Station gives companies a chance to grow <br />plants that are larger and require several months to mature. <br />Several new products, including an anthrax-killing device, a <br />system derived from an ethylene scrubber that keeps fruits <br />and vegetables fresher when they are stored or transported, <br />wound healing and surgical tools, all evolved from <br />technology that WCSAR originally developed to grow plants on <br />the Space Station.<br /><br /><br />Drug Discovery Through Space Research<br /><br /><br />The Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering (CBSE), <br />an RPC located at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, <br />partners with industry to enable NASA to stretch research <br />dollars. The CBSE, under the direction of Dr. Larry DeLucas, <br />a payload specialist on Shuttle mission STS-50, is a leading <br />structural biology center with one of the largest facilities <br />in the world for X-ray crystallography, as well as a <br />platform of proprietary high throughput technologies <br />designed for structure based drug discovery. <br /><br /><br />CBSE has developed a suite of technologies to rapidly <br />determine the biological structures necessary to produce new <br />therapeutics and pharmaceuticals. This research has led to <br />the development of drugs designed to treat various chronic <br />and infectious diseases. The predictive power that comes <br />from molecular research in the drug discovery process can <br />significantly advance the launch of new drugs for the safety <br />and health of humans on earth and those traveling in space. <br /><br /><br />The SPDP is part of NASA's Office of Biological and Physical <br />Research at Headquarters in Washington. For more information <br />about research and science programs, visit:<br /><br /><br />
http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/<br /><br /><br />For information about NASA and commercial space exploration <br />on the Internet, visit:<br /><br /><br />
http://www.nasa.gov<br /><br /><br />For information about the Space Product Development Program, <br />visit: <br /><br /><br />
http://www.spd.nasa.gov<br /><br /><br />For information about the BIO 2003 Conference, visit:<br /><br /><br />
http://bio.org/events/2003/<br /><br /><br />To download photographs to accompany this news release, <br />visit:<br /><br /><br />
http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news
