Principal Investigator: Ilia Guzei
Affiliation: University of Wisconsin – Madison
Provide a flight opportunity for the winner of the 2017 Wisconsin Crystal Growing Competition thus allowing the students to test their optimized conditions for Earth-based crystallization against microgravity-based crystallization.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Rasha Hammamieh
Affiliation: Department of Defense
This project is part of a broader effort to understand the effects of space flight on tissue healing. Studies suggest that microgravity likely impairs the wound healing process, and microgravity has been shown to have negative effects on skin quality in astronauts. This project seeks to identify the molecular foundations of cutaneous (skin) wound healing that are vulnerable to space flight-induced stress, potentially revealing biologically relevant pathways for the next generation of wound healing therapies. Samples from mice will be collected over a time course of wound healing, both in space flight conditions and in ground controls. In addition, the team will attempt to identify surrogate biomarkers from the blood, which if validated in humans, could eventually provide clinically useful diagnostic markers for the state of skin wounds. This project will mark the first time a comprehensive systems biology approach has been used to understand the impact of space flight on wound healing.

Principal Investigator: Dr. David S. Chung
Affiliation: Dover Lifesciences
Dover Lifesciences will utilize the International Space Station to perform crystallization experiments with glycogen synthase proteins glycogenin 1 (gyg1) and glycogenin 2 (gyg2) and Additionally each glycogen synthase protein will be co-crystallized in combination with glycogenin, G6P, UDP, and glycogen synthase inhibitor molecules.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell
Affiliation: HNu Photonics
This work will help calibrate and validate the functionality of the BioChip SpaceLab (BCSL), a life science research facility that is expected to be installed on the ISS NL in 2017/18.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Siobhan Malany
Affiliation: Micro-gRx, Inc.
A fully automated, multifunctional cell culture platform called Lab-on-a-Chip, which was previously validated in bacterial and crystal growth studies, will now be extended to study human skeletal muscle cell growth. This project expands on recent ISS stem cell studies and provides a model for microgravity-induced muscle atrophy, with downstream implications for additional research efforts in micro-scale modeling of musculoskeletal disease.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Richard Meehan
Affiliation: National Jewish Health
This project will demonstrate the use of a novel patented pneumatic compressive device, the KneeTap™, which simplifies and improves the quantitative collection of synovial fluid for analysis. The crew samples will be used to conduct a comparative study between ISS crew members, healthy subjects, and patients with a spinal cord injury in order to develop circulating biomarkers of cartilage health.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Ali Torkamani
Affiliation: Scripps Translational Science Institute
This experiment seeks to utilize state-of-the-art genomic methodologies to understand the influence of spaceflight on DNA damage and biological aging and reveal the potential of microgravity as it relates to the advancement of human aging research and the reduction of age-related diseases.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Shou-Ching Jaminet
Affiliation: Angiex
Angiex will evaluate the hypothesis that microgravity cultured endothelial cells represent a valid model system for the effects of vascular-targeted agents on normal blood vessels. If the hypothesis is validated, study results will potentially enable Angiex’s drug to be designed for lower toxicity, and will create an important model system for testing of any vascular drug.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Michail Kastellorizios
Affiliation: Biorasis, Inc.
This project seeks to improve the accuracy of a wireless medically implantable continuous glucose biosensor (Glucowizzard) for day-to-day diabetes management. Slow glucose transport within human tissue (through the capillary walls and surrounding tissue toward the sensing site of the biosensor) can create delays of up to 20 minutes in real-time monitoring of glucose levels. This delay can be detrimental in achieving tight glycemic control, which has been linked to serious secondary complications in patients with diabetes. The ISS provides a microgravity environment in which reduced fluid movement allows precise monitoring of the role of diffusion in glucose transport, thus improving the mathematical models that determine the accuracy of the Glucowizzard continuous glucose monitoring biosensor.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Yang D. Teng
Affiliation: Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Clarify microgravity’s effects on the growth and differentiation of human cranial mesenchymal stromal stem cells (hCMSCs). The undifferentiated state of hCMSCs advocates pluripotency that enables efficient recovery from neural damage. Microgravity provides an advantage to produce pluripotent stem cells without any potential risk of genetic manipulations and chemical contamination.