>> Hi. My name is Jeff Smith.
I'm the Project Manager for Space Biology
at NASA's Ames Research Center.
Space biology is hypothesis-driven,
discovery-based biological science and space,
and the associated technology that goes along with it.
This is foundational research
from which other NASA missions gain important insights
and discoveries and knowledge.
So why do we do space biology at NASA?
We do it to enable human exploration
so we may travel further than we've ever been
and live safely beyond the protection of Earth.
We do space biology to make fundamental discoveries,
to understand fundamentally how gravity
and the space environment shape life.
And finally, we do space biology to enable breakthroughs
to improve life on Earth.
That knowledge that we gain in space can feed back
and come back here to Earth to help develop new procedures,
new processes, new therapies that we haven't had before.
There are three main products of space biology.
One product, and the most important product is knowledge.
This is fundamental research.
So knowledge gained from space biology published in the basic
and applied research journals is a very important product.
Technology's also an important product of space biology.
We need to develop new technologies
to support living systems in space.
That's cells, that's plants, that's animals.
And that technology has very important applications,
and some aspects of that can be brought here
to Earth to improve our lives.
Finally there's knowhow.
Space biology is a process for how we fly good research
in space and bring that knowledge back home to Earth.
And so that knowhow is an important product
of space biology.
Space biology has three important science goals.
The first is to enhance our understanding
of fundamental biological processes.
Life changes and adapts at all levels in the space environment,
and we need to understand individually at the cell
and molecular level and at the tissue level,
how does that change?
How does space change life?
And how can we mitigate against detrimental health effects due
to space travel?
The second goal of science for space biology is
to develop the foundations for a safe,
productive human exploration of space.
We need to fundamentally study plants, animals, cells;
and translate that knowledge to humans to help us travel safely,
further and further, beyond the protection of Earth.
And then finally, the third space biology science goal is
to improve our nation's competitiveness, education
and quality of life on Earth.
Now, one of the most important technologies
for biological research is the microscope.
And space biology is no different.
Microscopes have been around for over a hundred years,
and they are used in many applications here on Earth.
In space, there are two types of microscope used.
There's the light microscope and the fluorescence microscope.
These use generally the same kind of light path
and technology and microscopy,
but the light microscope uses the visible light spectrum,
while the fluorescence microscope uses fluorescence
to measure living systems.
For light microscopes, there are a lot of cell structure
and function and motility measurements
that space biologists use.
They might want to look at how bone
or muscle loss is occurring in space.
Or they might want to look at cells in real time
in the space environment to see
if they're healthy or moving correctly.
They may want to use light microscopes for that and look
at the visible light spectrum.
But fluorescence microscopes are also used
in the space environment, and these allow
for more sophisticated measurements
of specific cells or molecules.
One way of using a fluorescence microscope is to do a screening
to determine if cells are alive and healthy, or dead.
By adding a cellular molecular fluorescence probe,
you can understand if the cells are alive,
if they fluoresce a certain color; or if they're dead,
if they fluoresce in a different color.
Another way that fluorescence microscopes are used in space is
to measure protein expression
and where proteins move into cells.
This is typically done
by attaching a green fluorescent protein
to a particular other protein, and when that protein is moving
through the cells, it fluoresces in a green color,
or it could be a yellow color or red color;
and that allows us scientists to look at where the cell is going,
where the protein is going in the cell and what it's doing.
This is a very powerful tool for understanding life in space
and changes in how they adapt and respond
to the space environment.
Current microscopes are integrated into the hardware
in the space environment, so if we have a cell biology facility
or a microbiology facility on orbit for life sciences,
and we want to use microscopy,
we'll have to attach the microscope directly
to that experiment and use it in just that specific way.
And that's limiting.
What we'd like to do
in the future is have the crew use microscopes
for real-time biology, like is done on Earth, and that way,
the crew may go take a sample from a biological experiment,
move it over to the microscope, and then look
at it under the microscope.
This way, they'll be able to see in real time what's going on in
that biological experiment, and they can call down to Earth
to the principal investigators and talk to the scientists
about what to do next.
That way, the space station can really become an active
laboratory with active, ongoing research, where the crew
and the scientists on Earth are working together.
Now, space biology missions at NASA Ames follow mostly the cell
and animal and microbiology areas of research.
There's invertebrate research, including small model organisms;
there's vertebrate research, including rodents
and other small vertebrates; we have microorganism research;
cell culture research; and some small payloads
for plant research.
There's also a project at NASA Ames
in Space Biology called Gene Lab,
looking at the genetic expression
and the genetic function, as well as gene protein activities
in the space environment for many types
of biological experiments.
Space Biology at NASA Ames has a number
of ongoing flight projects and facilities.
The rodent research we do is mainly associated with bone
and muscle and immune and cardiovascular
or vascular systems research.
The fruit fly lab that we have is
for doing model organism research
with this important biological model, the fruit fly.
Most of the fruit fly research is related to stress
or infection or cardiovascular disease and how it relates
to human or other animal model diseases.
Cell science facility, the cell culture
and cell science facility on orbit will be able
to provide an environment for animal
and human cell culture experiments.
This is very important for Earth-based research in areas
of cancer and immune and other cell systems.
So in space, the cell culture system will also provide very
important feedback and information
about those kinds of research areas.
The European Modular Cultivation System is a European facility
that we use in Space biology,
and it's a partnership between NASA and ESA.
It's typically used for small plant growth experiments now.
And there are also a number of micro payloads for a variety
of cell and molecular biology experiments.
These can be for bacterial or fungal or cells,
or even for small animals.
But they're small payloads, and that way we can rapidly get them
to orbit, perform the science we need to perform
and get the answers back for the scientists quickly.
Finally there's a different kind of spaceflight experiment
that NASA Ames is engaged with Space Biology,
and that's a nanosat experiment.
Nanosats are small, free-flying spacecraft
that are either launched off of the space station,
or they're launched off of rockets, such as the SpaceX,
on their way to the space station.
And these nanosats can be used
as independent biological research experiments in space,
and they're mostly important
when a very low-gravity environment is needed,
or there might be something hazardous that we couldn't bring
to the space station that we want to do
for a biology experiment.
And so that's space biology at NASA Ames
and the reasons we want to use microscopes
for space biology research.
So I hope I'll see you in space soon.