Why is cancer research in space different from research on the ground?
The human body is made up of cells, which normally grow within support structures made up of proteins and carbohydrates which allows the cells that form organs in the human body to maintain their three-dimensional (3-D) shapes. In labs on Earth, scientists can only grow cells on flat surfaces, they cannot create the 3-D shapes that form human organs. The cells do not behave the way they would if they were in the same 3-D shapes if they were in the human body. This makes it very hard to study cancer.
Well in space, there is no gravity, so support structures of proteins and carbohydrates are not needed. Vitro cells, cells not inside a living organism, arrange themselves into 3-D groupings called aggregates. These closely resemble what happens in the human body and allow scientists to study a more accurate model.
Dr. Jean Becker, PhD, a cell biologist at Nano3D Bioscienes in Houston and the principal investigator CBOSS-1-Ovarian study (the study on the ISS), "So many things change in 3-D, it's mind-blowing -- when you look at the function of the cell, how they present their proteins, how they activate genes, how they interact with other cells. The variable that you are most looking at here is gravity, and you can't really take away gravity on Earth. You have to go where gravity is reduced."
There have been early studies with 3-D cell formation in space on Space Shuttle missions STS-90 and STS-107. More information can be found at the linked article above.
So when people ask what the ISS is doing for them, please remind them, its one of our best bets to understand cancer.
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