Principal Investigator: Dr. Melissa Kacena and Dr. Rasha Hammamieh
Affiliation: Indiana University Research
The CASIS-sponsored portion of this project includes a preflight validation study that mice can successfully undergo an orthopaedic surgery (segmental bone defect) and be housed at high densities under conditions similar to that of spaceflight hardware (i.e., withstand the forces of gravity and vibration experienced during launch as well as the stresses associated with unloading).

Principal Investigator: Dr. Imran Mungrue
Affiliation: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
This study examines the role of the unfolded protein response (UPR) as an important contributor to osteoporosis and muscle atrophy. Untangling this cellular pathway’s connection with musculoskeletal disease will provide important knowledge for developing targeted therapies. Previous experiments have shown UPR’s increased activity in microgravity, making this phenomenon more accessible for investigation in a spaceflight rodent model. In addition to musculoskeletal diseases, over-activation of UPR has also been implicated in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Drew Cawthon
Affiliation: Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute
Improve design of nanoscale virus traps, a new generation of nanotechnologydriven treatments to treat viral infections. The experiment will evaluate virus-trap and virus-host interactions to examine how the traps mimic human cells to lure and destroy virus particles in a patient’s blood.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Virginia Ferguson
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
This ground project aims to analyze, normalize, and consolidate bone data from rodent research experiments in space for open source distribution as standardized control data to aid future researchers working on novel musculoskeletal disease treatments. Although rodent research on the ISS has already led to major discoveries in musculoskeletal disease models, such experiments would benefit from more robust control datasets.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Robert Schwartz
Affiliation: University of Houston System
Examine how simulated microgravity affects two critical genes involved in reprogramming fibroblasts into cardiac progenitor cells, toward potential cell therapies.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Rocky S. Tuan
Affiliation: University of Pittsburgh
A microphysiological system (MPS, a micro-scale system that models the detailed physical structure of human tissue) will be used to evaluate potential therapies for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis and other musculoskeletal disorders. Unlike animal models of bone loss, which can be confounded by species-specific responses (i.e., bone pathways in mice differ from humans) and require significant resource input even for limited sample sizes, MPS models can use human bone cells in high throughput micro fluidic platforms. This project will validate an MPS platform for bone in microgravity to con rm the protective role of bisphosphonates (a class of drugs currently used to treat osteoporosis) for protection during long-term microgravity exposure.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Edward Snell
Affiliation: Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute, Inc.
Validate the hypothesis that growth rate dispersion could be an indicator of crystals whose quality could be improved in microgravity. Growth rate dispersion is a phenomenon encountered in crystallization where seemingly identical crystals, produced from the same conditions, grow at different rates. It is contended that large growth rate dispersion on the ground is indicative of a sample that should be improved by microgravity growth. Protein crystal growth (PCG) is a foundational element of R&D on ISS for drug discovery, drug formulation, drug delivery, and disease modeling.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael Moore
Affiliation: AxoSim Technologies
This project will demonstrate the utility of a human nerve-on-a-chip as a model for studying disorders affecting myelin (a substance that surrounds the axon of nerve fibers, forming an insulating layer). This model could be useful not only for studying tissue behaviors associated with myelin disorders (e.g., multiple sclerosis) but also for accelerating preclinical drug development (e.g., toxicity testing). This ground-based study will lay the foundation for a follow-on flight project.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Clifford Dacso
Affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine
A multi-year matching funds grant agreement that includes the collaboration of CASIS and multiple Houston/Texas Medical Center groups to improve health on Earth by studying pathologic changes that occur in microgravity. The interdisciplinary collaboration includes Dr. Dacso’s team at Baylor College of Medicine and investigators in the College of Technology at the University of Houston and in the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chemistry Departments at Rice University. The group will focus on approaches to unraveling the complexity of human illness by longitudinally evaluating health effects that arise from prolonged spaceflight but have direct application to Earth, including intracranial pressure and circadian rhythm disorders. In addition, the team will explore innovative applications of stem cell differentiation for therapeutic use as well as microfluidics and image enhancement technologies to improve analytical and diagnostic capabilities.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Clifford Dacso
Affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine
This investigation has shifted from the development of hardware to automated image enhancement and interpretation, based on the understanding that robust image capture can be accomplished by a variety of techniques, but the key is in interpretation and reporting. The current investigation is focused on a novel methodology that looks at transitions to extract small but significant changes that could presage deterioration in eye function, toward wide-ranging medical applications and to provide a basis for ICP surveillance.