Tohoku University and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will start space experiments at Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) called Kibo in the International Space Station (ISS). We will board a space shuttle at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2009.

 The purpose of the experiment is to verify that RNA interference (RNAi) is available in space, and to challenge problems of human including muscular weakness. We will first introduce RNAi into space experiments in the world.

  Caenorbabditis Elegans has gathered attention as model organism among researchers. Dr. Craig C. Mello and Dr. Andrew Fire have discovered RNAi by researches using Caenorbabditis Elegans. The two doctors have been awarded The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2006 for their discoveries. It has been cleared that RNAi is applicable to living organism including plants, insects, laboratory rats and human cells. The newly discovered mechanism has developed to be a technology to control gene function. The promising technology is expected to further develop in medicine to be applied to a new gene therapy.

  The first goal of this space experiment is to verify that RNAi is available in space just as on the earth. If it works in space, RNAi will be applied to fundamental space experiments using cultured cell, and develop to be an effective method to cure genetic disease caused there.

 The 2004 space experiment in collaboration with JAXA showed that Caenorbabditis Elegans also weakened the muscles same as astronauts did. In this study, we will analyze genes related to the muscles and protein expression of Caenorbabditis Elegans grew in space. The analysis will help explain a mechanism of muscular weakness in microgravity, which may lead to its prevention or healing. People could stay healthy in space without muscular weakness in near future.

http://kibo.jaxa.jp/experiment/theme/first/cerise/

[Contact]
Professor Atsushi Higashitani
Researcher Takako Takanami
Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University
Tel: +81-22-217-5715