CSU lab is one of 10 in NASA study on twins
Project examines impact of space flight on human body
Scott Kelly returns to Earth Tuesday night, but some of his blood cells arrived at Colorado State University from the International Space Station months ago.
CSU researcher Susan Bailey and her team are among scientists from 10 laboratories involved in the NASAt win study, which is examining the impact of prolonged space flight on the human body.
Kelly’s blood cells, those sent fromspace, aswell those taken before he left and ones that will be taken upon his return, are being compared with cells taken from his identical twin, Mark, a former astronaut himself.
While Scott has been orbiting, Mark “has been living an Earth life in Arizona, drinking margaritas or whatever it is that he does,” said Bailey, a professor in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences.
Comparing samples fromthe twins will help determine how Scott’s chromosomes changed during his year in space.
Blood draws done in space were planned to coincide with the arrival of Soyuz spacecraft that carried the samples, along with returning Russian cosmonauts, back to Kazakhstan.
From there the tubes filled with blood went to Houston and then by FedEx to CSU. The package arrived in Fort Collins within 48 hours of leaving the space station.
Bailey and her team are focusing on changes that radiation and stress produce in cells that could increase risk for aging and cancer.
The ends of human chromosomes are capped with telomeres, a coating that Bailey compares to the plastic tip surrounding the ends of shoelaces.
The telomeres protect the genetic code within the chromosomes from eroding.
Stress, environmental influences and normal aging lead to a breakdown in those caps, shortening the telomeres and increasing activity in an enzyme that helps cancers to grow and divide, said Lynn Taylor, a senior research associate at CSU.
“The more rapidly we lose lengths, the more rapidly we age. You can’t be precise enough to tell when someone will die, but you can tell the rate of change,” Bailey said.
Radiation also can degrade the length of telomeres, said Miles McKenna, a doctoral candidate assisting with the research at CSU.
And radiation in space is a danger to astronauts. “An increase in cancer risk is the principal concern for astronaut exposure to space radiation, and it is one risk that persists after landing,” according to a NASA fact sheet.
The tests on Kelly, whose 340- day space station stay is the longest time an American astronaut has lived in space, should provide information that will help future astronauts prepare for deep- space travel.
NASA considers it crucial prepwork for future Mars explorers, who will have to be in space much longer. In fact, this mission — which began with a launch last March — is all about Mars.
Testing will continue forweeks, if not months, once Kelly is home in Houston.
The CSU lab results will be sent to Houston, and will be shared with others involved in the study, Bailey said.
The twins study will cost NASA about $ 1.5 million, Bailey said. It has captured the public’s imagination and drawn farmore attention to the lab in CSU’s Molecular & Radiological Biosciences building than Bailey ever imagined, she said.
“I had no concept how this whole thing would catch on — around the world,” Bailey said. “It is beyond my wildest dreams.”