Where No Plant Has Gone Before
Space could be the final frontier in cancer research
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY ORGANISMS WITH FLEXIBLE GENES. Anything that reproduces contains a blueprint for making more of itself. And all 'NA is susceptible to outside inʀuence The enyironment in Zhich it liyes can force dormant genes into action or nez traits to appear. Stressful situations—changes in climate, temperature or predators, for example—are particularly good at eliciting genetic change.
The Zorld of ʀora has long been a source of cancer-ɿghting therapies. The breast, oyarian and lung cancer drug paclitaxel, the most Zell-knozn example, originally came from the 3aciɿc yez tree. 'rugs to treat testicular and some lung cancers are based on chemicals in the common mayapple. A group of drugs knozn as the Yinca alkaloids, commonly included in chemotherapy regimens, are deriyed from Madagascar perizinkle.
When it comes to using plants as medicine, the Yery traits that enable them to Zithstand enyironmental stress are often the ones that ɿght illness. -oe &happell, Zho researches natural products at the Uniyersity of .entucky, wondered whether exposing Madagascar periwinkle to a new threat would increase its anti-cancer properties by waking up inactiye genes. To ɿnd out, he exposed the plant to a ha]ard it would neyer encounter on Earth ]ero grayity.
Last year, Chappell, with the help of Space Tango, a commercial company that proyides support for research in micrograyity, sent Madagascar periwinkle seedlings to the International Space Station. He also sent seedlings of Yalerian, a plant with anti-anxiety properties. In the coming months, Chappell will ɿnd out whether growing in orbit creatchanges ed in the plants’ DNA. If so, those changes can be tested for their cancer- and anxiety-ɿghting attributes.
HE EXPOSED THE PLANT TO A HAZARD IT WOULD NEVER ENCOUNTER ON EARTH.