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NASA awards SBP professor $2 million from to study flies in space
by Staff Writers
San Diego CA (SPX) Sep 24, 2021

Understanding the effects of microgravity on human organs is crucial to exploration of low-earth orbit, the moon, and beyond. Drosophila can be sent to space in large numbers to examine the effects of microgravity on heart structure and function, which is fundamentally conserved from flies to humans. Flies reared in microgravity exhibit cardiac constriction with myofibrillar remodeling and diminished output.

As part of their larger initiative to understand the effects of space conditions on different organisms, NASA has awarded $2 million to Sanford Burnham Prebys assistant professor Karen Ocorr. The grant will fund a three-year project to study the effects of low gravity on muscle and neuron function in fruit flies and nematode worms aboard the International Space Station.

"Getting a precise understanding of how altered gravity impacts model organisms like the fruit fly puts us one step closer to understanding how to sustain human life in space long-term," says Ocorr. "We may not look like them, but most of the genes and proteins that make our muscles and nerves function are remarkably similar."

While fruit flies have been used for space studies since the 1940's, the need to study the effects of gravity on life has become more pressing as the possibility of colonization of the moon or Mars becomes more feasible.

"It's been six decades since the first human spaceflight, but there's still so much we don't know about how our bodies respond to altered gravities, like why astronauts continue to experience muscle atrophy in space regardless of how much exercise they get," says Ocorr. "NASA's Artemis program will put astronauts on the moon again, and studies like ours will help NASA design countermeasures to maintain their health while living in reduced gravity."

This is not the first time that Ocorr has put fruit flies into space. A study from her lab published last year in Cell Reports found that prolonged exposure to zero gravity causes cardiac constriction and changes in muscle proteins in flies. The new project will expand upon those findings, looking at both muscle and nervous systems in flies and worms reared aboard the International Space Station under simulated Earth, Mars and lunar gravities.

"We've already seen that gravity impacts the flies' heart function and maintenance, but now we want to better understand exactly how," says Ocorr. "The idea is to derive a dose-response curve for gravity and identify common biochemical markers, and, ultimately, genes that change their expression patterns in response to gravity."

The grant is titled, "Integrated physiological responses of CNS and muscle in Drosophila and C. elegans along a gravity continuum." Co-investigators on the grant include Siddhita Mhatre, Ph.D., and Janani Iyre, Ph.D., from the NASA Ames Research Center and Nathaniel Szewczyk, Ph.D. from Ohio University.


Related Links
Sanford Burnham Prebys
The Physics of Time and Space


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PHYSICS NEWS
Exploring quantum gravity-for whom the pendulum swings
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 20, 2021
When it comes to a marriage with quantum theory, gravity is the lone holdout among the four fundamental forces in nature. The three others-the electromagnetic force, the weak force, which is responsible for radioactive decay, and the strong force, which binds neutrons and protons together within the atomic nucleus-have all merged with quantum theory to successfully describe the universe on the tiniest of scales, where the laws of quantum mechanics must play a leading role. Although Einstein's theo ... read more

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