Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Travel News .




STATION NEWS
CU-Boulder to fly antibiotic experiment on ants to space station
by Staff Writers
Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 06, 2014


BioServe research partners on the ant project include Gordon of Stanford University and Associate Professor Michael Greene of the University of Colorado Denver. The experiment is sponsored by NASA's National Lab Education Office as well as the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, a nonprofit group headquartered in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s commercial Cygnus spacecraft on Tuesday, Jan. 7 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, which will be carrying two University of Colorado Boulder payloads to the International Space Station.

The two CU-Boulder payloads -- a biomedical antibiotic experiment and an educational K-12 experiment involving ant behavior in microgravity -- are slated to be launched aboard Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket at 11:55 a.m. MST. Both experiments were designed by BioServe Space Technologies, a NASA-funded center in CU-Boulder's aerospace engineering sciences department.

The CU-Boulder biomedical experiment was designed to test the effectiveness of antibiotics in space. Past experiments by CU-Boulder and other institutions have shown bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics is significantly reduced during spaceflight, although the reason is not yet known, said CU-Boulder Associate Professor David Klaus, principal investigator on the project.

Klaus said the investigation will examine changes in the gene expression of the bacteria E. coli during exposure to different concentrations of antibiotics while in the microgravity environment of space. The hope is to locate particular genes that are key to resisting antibiotics, which could lead to improved testing on Earth as well as new drug targets or new approaches to understanding antibiotic resistance in certain diseases or infections, said Klaus.

"Previous studies carried out in microgravity have shown that bacteria are able to grow in what normally would be an inhibitory concentration of the antibiotic," said Klaus. "This investigation is aimed at characterizing the genetic basis for this response in the weightless environment of space with the intent of applying any insight gained toward combating the increasing emergence of drug-resistant pathogens here on Earth."

Co-investigators on the project include BioServe Director Louis Stodieck, a research professor in aerospace engineering, and Shawn Levy, a researcher at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Ala. The research effort also involves CU-Boulder doctoral candidate Luis Zea.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics kills 100,000 Americans every year and represents a roughly $20 billion expense to the U.S. government in excess health care costs, said Klaus. The experiments will be undertaken using spaceflight test tubes contained in the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, or CGBA, an automated, suitcase-sized incubator, all designed and built by BioServe.

The second experiment launching to ISS is known as Ants in Space, which examines foraging patterns based on the density of the common Pavement Ant, said BioServe Business Development Manager and Education Program Director Stefanie Countryman.

"Past experiments by Professor Deborah Gordon, principal investigator on this project, have shown that some ant species have the ability to search areas collectively without individual communication. When ant densities are high, each ant thoroughly searches one small area in a circular, "random" walk, she said. When ant densities are low, each ant searches by walking in a relatively straight line, allowing it to cover more ground.

"Ants assess their own density at the rate at which they meet," said Countryman, who said the eight individual ant habitats on ISS will be loaded with roughly 100 ants each.

"The experiment examines whether in microgravity ants will use the rate at which they meet to assess density, and so use straighter paths in the larger habitat areas. The results will be compared to ground controls, which in this case will include ant habitats in hundreds of K-12 classrooms around the world."

Countryman has previously directed BioServe K-12 education experiments involving the behavior of butterflies, ladybugs and spiders in space, reaching hundreds of thousands of students around the world in the past two decades. For the ant experiments, BioServe is partnering with the Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Education Outreach, a longstanding BioServe partner that has developed the education curriculum guide for the experiment.

BioServe research partners on the ant project include Gordon of Stanford University and Associate Professor Michael Greene of the University of Colorado Denver. The experiment is sponsored by NASA's National Lab Education Office as well as the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, a nonprofit group headquartered in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Teachers interested in participating in the ant experiments may contact Countryman at countrym at colorado.edu. More information on the project for teachers and students will be online beginning in mid-January here. The flight will be the first Cygnus resupply cargo mission launched to ISS by Orbital Sciences Corp. and follows the earlier, successful launch of a Cygnus demo flight to ISS that arrived at the orbiting station Oct. 22.

.


Related Links
BioServe at CU
Station at NASA
Station and More at Roscosmos
S.P. Korolev RSC Energia
Watch NASA TV via Space.TV
Space Station News at Space-Travel.Com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








STATION NEWS
Expedition 38 Sends New Year's Greetings on Off-Duty Day
Houston TX (SPX) Jan 01, 2014
On the last day of 2013, the six station residents had off-duty time on orbit while still conducting some science, maintenance work and exercise. The Expedition 38 crew also sent down messages in their native languages to bring in the New Year. The international crew of six will also have New Year's Day off. Commander Oleg Kotov and his fellow cosmonauts Sergey Ryazanskiy and Mikhail Tyuri ... read more


STATION NEWS
'20 years of toil has paid off' Says Radhkrishnan

GSLV-D5 launch: What the success means

SpaceX launches second commercial satellite

Arianespace targets record year for rocket launches

STATION NEWS
One-way trip to Mars? Sign me up, says Frenchwoman

Clues from Orbit Aiding Exploration Of Opportunity Rover

Decade-Old Rover Adventure Continues on Mars and Earth

More than 1,000 chosen for one-way Mars reality-TV mission

STATION NEWS
Wake Up Yutu

Chang'e-3 satellite payload APXS obtained its first spectrum of lunar regolith

Chang'e 3 Lander and Rover From Above

China's moon rover "sleeps" through lunar night

STATION NEWS
The Sounds of New Horizons

On the Path to Pluto, 5 AU and Closing

SwRI study finds that Pluto satellites' orbital ballet may hint of long-ago collisions

Archival Hubble Images Reveal Neptune's "Lost" Inner Moon

STATION NEWS
Earth appears to be an oddity, astronomers say

Researchers use Hubble Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien world

NASA's Hubble Sees Cloudy Super-Worlds With Chance for More Clouds

Using an Atmosphere to Weigh a Planet

STATION NEWS
Facility upgrades will support X-37B program

India launches cutting-edge cryogenic rocket

MAM produces plasma cavity for Helicon Double Layer Thruster Engine

Russia launches upgraded Soyuz rocket

STATION NEWS
China launches communications satellite for Bolivia

China's moon rover continues lunar survey after photographing lander

China's Yutu "naps", awakens and explores

Deep space monitoring station abroad imperative

STATION NEWS
The First Discovered Asteroid of 2014 Collides With The Earth - An Update

First Asteroid Discovered in 2014 Has Little Impact

Dawn passes halfway mark to Ceres

Dwarf Planet Ceres - 'A Game Changer in the Solar System'




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement