Scientists from the University of Nottingham have supplied 4,000 tiny C. elegans worms for boarding onto the space shuttle Atlantis, which launches tonight from Kennedy Space centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The study is designed to help experts in human physiology understand more about what triggers the body to build and lose muscle.
Worms, each measuring just 1mm, are bound for the International Space Station where they will experience the same weightless conditions that can cause dramatic muscle loss, of up to 50%, in astronauts.
The worms share much of their genetic material with humans, making them a reasonable laboratory model for human research.
Over 11 days in orbit, the worms will be exposed to a drug that has been approved recently for use in preventing muscle wastage among cancer patients. If successful, this would lead to testing the drug on astronauts during future missions.
With astronauts destined to spend years at a time manning long-term missions to destinations such as the Moon and Mars, scientists are keen to establish how such degradation might be prevented.
Dr Szewczyk from the University’s Institute of Clinical Research in Derby, said that although some people may think it was a bizarre explanation for research, aspects of muscle atrophy could not be studied or replicated easily on Earth.
For more information please visit the the University of Nottingham (link opens in a new window) website.
Related Links The BBC (link opens in a new window) The Times (link opens in a new window)
