Disease Carrying Bacteria Onboard the Endeavour—Part II
“There’s a decline in people’s immune function the longer they’re in the space environment, and it’s been shown that other bacteria also alter their properties in microgravity — they grow faster, they tend to be more virulent and resistant to microbial treatment,” said immunology department chairman David Niesel of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston microbiology.
The Endeavour made its return flight in safety, landing at the Kennedy Space Center after a successful construction and supply mission. Microbiologist David Niesel was more than happy to receive the sealed containers that had been located in the shuttle’s mid-deck. Known as “Streptococcus pneumoniae Expression of Genes Space” experiment, or SPEGIS, and according to ScienceDaily online, it originated “in 1999 with a project to grow the bacteria in orbit and bring them back home frozen in ‘zero-g mode’ for study” or zero gravity mode.
With scientific vials packed in the sealed aluminum canisters to protect the astronauts during launching of the Endeavour, they reached the International Space Station on day five and docked to the ISS. At this point in time, the Endeavour crew raised the specially-made canisters holding the bacteria to just above body temperature, incubating them for about 15 ½ hours. The canisters were then instantly transferred to a freezer on the ISS, dropping the temperature of the canister and its contents down to -139 degrees F.
Whatever was going on with the bacteria then was locked into time, allowing no metabolism to occur from that moment on. It was kind of like an instant snapshot of the bacteria after the 15-½ hours of being exposed to space environment. To guarantee accuracy, control experiments were being done on Earth at the same moments, timed to the minute with the canister transfers. The only difference in the two experiments was the microgravity part, and eventually it will be seen what this part plays in the experiments.
Now that the packed bacteria is on its way back in the lab, plans are being made to conduct a protein and genetic analysis, in addition to possible virulence studies in the laboratory mice. Known for its first studies of an “opportunistic pathogen in space”, the experiment will allow humanity to understand how the bacteria can adapt to different and unusual environments. This can do nothing but answer questions whether we need to become concerned for long-duration space missions and its travelers.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Mission Objectives, Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
