Microbes in Microgravity UNDERSTANDING BACTERIAL BEHAVIOR in SPACE

MAGAZINE OF THE ISS NATIONAL LAB • FEBRUARY 2017 Microbes in Microgravity UNDERSTANDING BACTERIAL BEHAVIOR IN SPACE ON PAGE 2 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1 LOOKING OUTWARD TO THE ROLE OF THE ISS INSPIRING STUDENTS BETTER UNDERSTAND THE IN REGENERATIVE THROUGH AMATEUR UNIVERSE AROUND US MEDICINE RESEARCH RADIO ON THE ISS FEBRUARY 2017 THE VIEW FROM THE CUPOLA BY GREGORY H. JOHNSON, CASIS Former Astronaut fter the completion of another record year, the ISS U.S. National Gregory H. Johnson is the President Laboratory continues to expand the frontiers of science in low and Executive AEarth orbit! In 2016, we saw Astronaut Kate Rubins observe, for Director of CASIS the first time ever, heart muscle cells beating in orbit: one of several groundbreaking stem cell investigations in space. A diverse portfolio of payloads—58 in total— were launched to the ISS National Lab. These payloads were rich in discovery science, new technologies, and enabling platforms, powered by a growing community of new and returning 1 researchers. Strong investment interest in the ISS National Lab from non-NASA sources grew, The View from the Cupola including universities, other government agencies, and the commercial sector. FEATURES The ISS National Lab mission is exciting and meaningful to everyone Looking forward, there is much work to 2 Microbes in Microgravity: Analyzing Gene Expression to Better Understand Bacterial Behavior in Space on Earth—serving our national interest to maximize the value of do in 2017. The space community is in a this one-of-a-kind asset, to increase access to new users, and to transition year, and we will see new faces in key government leadership positions. Our 8 On the Frontier of Space: Looking Outward help accelerate the growth of our commercial economy in space. to Better Understand the Universe Around Us I could not be prouder of the ISS National Lab team, composed nation will continue to innovate, inspire, of dedicated professionals from NASA, CASIS, implementation and challenge the status quo with new SPOTLIGHTS TABLE OF partners, launch providers, and a broad community of users. ideas. We’ll see business-to-business R&D opportunities flourish, which will lead us Scientist Astronaut Leads Research CONTENTS One year ago, we launched the first issue of Upward, and 14 to new markets for products and services in Space for Life on Earth now we begin our second volume with articles highlighting and novel discoveries, all enabled by an interesting cross section of recent in-orbit activities. space-based research for use on Earth. 14 Investing in Innovation: Launching Start-ups with ISS Research Kudos to our entire scientific writing team—with articles We will see companies and institutions from multiple contributors—who have built and grown this new to space launching their first projects 15 Inspiring Students through Amateur Radio on the ISS informative magazine for the ISS National Lab community. into space. Additionally, we expect ISS educational and inspirational opportunities The Role of the ISS National Lab in 16 Within this issue, you can learn about cutting-edge research in to multiply, as science, technology, Regenerative Medicine Research bacterial gene expression and cell behavior in space. We continue engineering, and mathematics programs to observe and discover new phenomena in the unique ISS and partnerships mature and generate new environment, where the effects of gravity on living and non-living outreach channels. The fascinating results systems alike can be isolated in ways not possible on Earth. It’s of ISS National Lab research will continue amazing to me—the breadth and depth of research now being to be revealed and will stretch our minds performed on the Space Station. Of course, ISS National Lab with new data, tools, and knowledge. investigators not only take advantage of the continuous microgravity environment, but also utilize the vantage point of our world’s only The payback from the ISS National Lab to manned satellite. In this issue, we highlight three “outward” facing life on Earth is a gift to our nation and to projects: a project examining meteors traveling through the Earth’s the world, with great promise for what lies atmosphere to probe what our early solar system was like, an ahead. While I’ve enjoyed many incredible investigation to test an innovative charge injection device to directly vantage points in my 30-year career in image distant Earth-like planets in other solar systems, and the aerospace—from different perspectives on Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer—a state-of-the-art in-orbit particle the ground, in the air, and onboard the ISS— detector pointed at our heavens to better understand our universe. the view right now is the one that leaves me the most inspired about our future. Various images throughout publication are courtesy of NASA. CASIS, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, and the CASIS Center for the Advancement of Science in Space logo are trademarks of the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space in the U.S. and/or other countries. Published 02/17. 1 FEBRUARY 2017 y observing the health of astronauts that travel into space, scientists have learned that microgravity has important effects on the human body, causing substantial MICROBES IN changes to our bones and muscles. However, scientists have also found that Bmicrogravity has dramatic effects on far smaller living organisms, such as bacteria. MICROGRAVITY: Bacteria behave differently in the microgravity environment of On Earth, there are different flows space than they do in a 1-g ground environment. For example, and forces, such as sedimentation, scientists have observed that in space, some strains of bacteria buoyancy, and convection, that don’t ANALYZING GENE EXPRESSION appear to exhibit enhanced growth and increased virulence exist in space because they are gravity (ability to cause disease). Additionally, higher doses of antibiotics are needed to kill some bacteria in space. dependent,” Zea said. “The model TO BETTER UNDERSTAND states that it is the lack of these forces Scientists believe that these behavioral and flows that creates a different BACTERIAL BEHAVIOR IN SPACE changes are not necessarily a direct effect of environment around the bacteria.” BY AMELIA WILLIAMSON SMITH microgravity acting on the bacteria themselves— so what causes these changes in bacterial behavior? ALTERING THE ENVIRONMENT AROUND BACTERIA Dr. Luis Zea preparing the AES-1 experiment One model—the altered extracellular environment model— at Kennedy Space hypothesizes that the changes in bacterial behavior are actually Center prior to the an indirect effect of the microgravity environment, said Luis Zea, launch of Orbital ATK CRS-1. a researcher at BioServe Space Technologies at the University BioServe Space Technologies of Colorado, Boulder. The model postulates that microgravity alters the immediate environment around the bacterial cells, which then leads to changes in bacterial behavior. Zea and his team conducted an experiment called Antibiotic Effectiveness in Space-1 (AES-1), in which they compared gene expression data from a nonpathogenic (not disease-causing) strain of Escherichia coli bacteria grown onboard the ISS National Lab with cultures grown on the ground. AES-1 was launched to the ISS on Orbital ATK CRS-1 and returned to Earth on SpaceX CRS-3 and SpaceX CRS-4. Results from AES-1—published in the journal PLoS ONE in November 2016—strongly support the altered extracellular environment model. “Through AES-1, we were able to corroborate, for the first time, this altered extracellular environment model that has been hypothesized for decades and could not be proven empirically or computationally,” Zea said. Although the AES-1 data only shows correlation and not yet causation, the results shed light on why bacteria behave the way they do in microgravity and open the door to further research on unicellular organisms. PEEKING INSIDE BACTERIAL CELLS On Earth, the movement of bacterial cells through their media is influenced by the physical properties of the medium, including gravity-driven forces like buoyancy and sedimentation, as well as other forces, such as the viscosity of the medium. As the cells NASA Astronaut Rick Mastracchio using a crank to activate a group move, they interact with fresh media and absorb molecules activation pack (GAP) onboard the of nutrients. The cells also excrete waste products that ISS for the AES-1 experiment. may sediment down, float up, or trail behind the cells NASA if they move, while simultaneously diffusing away. 2 MICROBES IN MICROGRAVITY 3 FEBRUARY 2017 However, in microgravity, these gravity-driven forces are absent, and Groups of eight CORRELATING OBSERVATIONS ALTERED EXTRACELLULAR ENVIRONMENT MODEL the transportation of nutrients to cells and waste products away from FPAs were WITH THE MODEL loaded into 16 cells are limited to diffusion-only transport. The altered extracellular If the model is correct, the microgravity- Blue circles represent the overexpression of environment model hypothesizes that the resulting reduction in the BioServe Space grown bacterial cells would have reduced genes associated with metabolism. movement of molecules leads to less interaction of the cells with Technologies interaction with fresh media and thus Green circles represent the overexpression of genes fresh media and thus reduced availability of nutrient molecules for group activation less nutrients available (even though the associated with acidic environment conditions. absorption. Additionally, less movement causes waste products to packs (GAP), same amount of nutrients was provided for accumulate around the cells, resulting in higher concentrations of which are the flight samples and ground controls). potentially toxic compounds. The model postulates that these changes cylinders that BioServe Space Technologies BioServe Space Technologies Therefore, the researchers expected to GLUCOSE in the immediate environment around the cells are what lead, at least hold the FPAs see signs that the bacterial cells grown in in part, to the changes in bacterial behavior observed in microgravity.

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