Welcome to Our Blog
Thank you for visiting our website. We are a relatively small lab with big ideas. We are part of a much larger group of investigators known collectively as the LLUMC Molecular Radiation Biology Laboratories. It is our hope that this website will educate, communicate, and incite scientific debate. As the PI of our little group, I hope to post our data and discuss potential mechanisms, consequences, and countermeasures. With a bit of luck we'll all learn something. The links to the left include our merry band as well as collaborating investigators and laboratories. The links to the right include our archive and blogroll. The banner above will always bring you back to the main page page. Take a look around and please feel free to leave a comment on our blog (try to keep it civil and constructive) or shoot us an e-mail. - Michael " Ubertramp " Pecaut
Lab Update
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2009.04.12
Categories & Tags: Gamma Radiation,Grant,Low Dose Radiation,Microgravity,NASA,New Publication,Protons,Radiation,Space Shuttle,T cell
Comments: None
It’s been a couple of months since the last update, so it’s about time. We have some good news and some bad news. The bad news first. My NASA grant was turned down for funding. I haven’t seen the review yet, so I’m not sure why. Nor do I know who or what actually DID get funded. Guess we’ll have to see.
Ironically (or coincidentally, I haven’t decided which), we received the acceptance letter from JAP for our third immune publication from the last shuttle flight on the same day. The reviewers were pretty rough on us, though. It bounced back and forth three times before they finally accepted it. Farnaz was pretty excited as this was her first publication. Woot! Now all she has to do is finish her dissertation and graduate. Hahaha. It’s still an Epub ahead of print, so I don’t have a reprint. Give it a few weeks. Read More..
Lab Update
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2009.02.10
Categories & Tags: Department of Energy,Grant Proposal,High-Energy Iron Radiation,Immunity,Microgravity,Mouse,NASA,NIH,New Publication,Radiation,Space Shuttle
Comments: None
Well, I’ve been on and off vacation for the last month or so. But a lot has been going on since my last update.
First, the bad news. Both NIH and DOE have turned down my grant proposals. I will probably try to resubmit the NIH grant this summer once I figure out how to address some of the reviewer concerns. I gotta keep remembering that being a scientist requires a thick skin and a short memory when it comes to rejection. Good thing I’m showing signs of early onset Alzheimer’s. Hah!
I still haven’t heard back from NASA regarding my Mice In Space proposal. I’m not sure what is holding it up. My guess is the recent economic issues have made spaceflight an even more difficult prospect than usual. Plus, they may be trying to work out a way to blend two or more proposals together. Given the lack of funds for science in general, this is probably harder than it sounds.
We also haven’t heard from LLU regarding our NMTB grant proposal. Seems LLU got a lot more proposals than they expected and they are having a harder time deciding who gets what. They may also be debating cutting the funding cap in order to fund more individual projects. I have no idea.
On to the good news. Read More..
NASA and Innovation
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2009.02.09
Categories & Tags: Current Events,NASA
Comments: None
Some of you may have heard this story on NPR this morning.
“A short, satirical video produced by an astronaut and posted on YouTube is generating a lot of discussion within NASA and the space community. The video focuses on making sure the agency’s bureaucracy doesn’t crush innovative ideas and dissenting opinions.”
It’s been a running joke in some circles that once you start to work for NASA, you move away from doing actual science and start slipping into a management black hole. A lot of the research NASA depends on is actually done outside of the organization and in the University setting. Much like the work in our lab. As I’ve seen both the science and the engineering sides of NASA, some of this sounds all too real. I’m glad to hear that NASA is taking this criticism seriously.
Update on NIH and NASA grant proposals
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.10.27
Categories & Tags: Grant Proposal,Low Dose Radiation,Mouse,NASA,NIH,Radiation,Russian Space Agency,Space Shuttle
Comments: None
You may recall that we submitted a grant proposal to NASA a few months ago to fly an immune experiment on board the Russian Bion M1 rocket. We proposed to fly mice for about a month and then challenge the mice with live E. coli about three days after landing. We also had a second aim that included using a transgenic mouse model (NOX2 or gp91phox knockout). Unfortunately, NASA and the Russian Space Agency could not come to an aggreement on the flight and the project was changed. Now, the flight will likely occur on the space shuttle in February 2010. We were fortunate enough to be one of five proposals invited into the scientific defnition phase. Basically, we were asked to rewrite our proposals to meet the new requirements (e.g. smaller sample size, shorter flight time, different launch/landing site, etc.) and we’re thrilled to get this far. The new due date is Nov 19th.
The news for our NIH proposal is less good. In this proposal we were focusing on the low dose radiation patients receive for bone marrow transplants and the long term immune and behavioral consequences. Unfortunately, the proposal was returned without a score. We’re still waiting on the review.
Space in the news
Posted by: Ubertramp on
Categories & Tags: Current Events,NASA,Radiation
Comments: None
It looks like spaceflight has been in the news a lot over the last week or two. First, the son of an astronaut became an astronaut. Must be nice to have a spare $30M sitting around to give to the Russians for this…
“Richard Garriott, a 47-year-old computer games designer who created the Ultima game series, paid US$30 million for trip to the International Space Station. When he lifted off Oct. 12, he became the first American to follow his father into space.”
Next, one of the guys who walked around on the moon (OK, it was THE Buzz Aldrin) a few decades ago had this to say about a future Mars mission,
“The first astronauts sent to Mars should be prepared to spend the rest of their lives there, in the same way that European pioneers headed to America knowing they would not return home, says moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.”
Sign me up!!! Seriously. I’d go in a heartbeat. And no one can never claim I didn’t know what I was getting into, now could they? Heh.
NASA announced a new NSBRI for more space radiation research. Dr. Ann Kennedy is out there and she knows her stuff. This should be good.
“The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has been awarded $10 million over a five-year period from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). The grant establishes an NSBRI Center of Acute Radiation Research (CARR) studying the acute effects of space radiation.”
And finally, there’s another player in the space race. I hope congress and the next president of the United States is paying attention…
“Chandrayaan-1 – which means “Moon Craft” in ancient Sanskrit – is scheduled to launch from the Sriharikota space center in southern India at 8:20 p.m. EDT Tuesday in a two-year mission aimed at laying the groundwork for further Indian space expeditions.”
Update from the Lab
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.09.06
Categories & Tags: BioServe Space Technologies,Brookhaven National Laboratory,Grant,International Space Station,NASA,New Publication,Politics,Russian Space Agency,Space Shuttle
Comments: 1
We’ve been pretty busy in the lab lately. We had yet another publication appear in PubMed, sent off multiple publications to journals for review, and ran a couple of big experiments. On top of that, I moved to a new house, so I’ve been less than useful in the lab for the last couple of months.
The publication in PubMed is from one of our earlier studies investigating the effects of radiation on the ability to respond to an immune challenge. In this case, it was a secondary challenge – meaning, we challenged the mice twice. Once immediately after irradiation. And once several weeks later. In essence, we were checking to see if radiation altered the development of basic immune memory. Here’s the abstract:
One more time…
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.08.02
Categories & Tags: Bone,Brookhaven National Laboratory,Clemson,High-Energy Iron Radiation,NASA,Rats
Comments: None
As I said in my earlier post, we were waiting for a couple more publications to start showing up in PubMed. Another one hit yesterday. This one is a result of our collaboration with Ted Bateman at Clemson University. He has a great group over there looking at spaceflight effects on bone. Up until recently, he was focusing primarily on microgravity and disuse models with several biomed applicable studies. More recently, he’s shifted a bit to include radiation exposure and radiotherapy. Once his initial studies started showing some interesting results, his whole group hit the ground running and they’ve already published several papers on this exciting work. This is one of them, recently published in Radiation Research.
Bone architectural and structural properties after (56)fe(26+) radiation-induced changes in body mass.
Willey JS, Grilly LG, Howard SH, Pecaut MJ, Obenaus A, Gridley DS, Nelson GA, Bateman TA.
High-energy, high-charge (HZE) radiation, including iron ions ((56)Fe(26+)), is a component of the space environment. We recently observed a profound loss of trabecular bone in mice after whole-body HZE irradiation. The goal of this study was to examine morphology in bones that were excluded from a (56)Fe(26+) beam used to irradiate the body. Using 10-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats and excluding the hind limbs and pelvis, we irradiated animals with 0, 1, 2 and 4 Gy (56)Fe(26+) ions and killed them humanely after 9 months. Animals grew throughout the experiment. Trabecular bone volume, connectivity and thickness within the proximal tibiae were significantly lower than control in a dose-dependent manner. Irradiated animals generally had less body mass than controls, which largely accounted for the variability in bone parameters as determined by ANCOVA. Likewise, lower cortical parameters were associated with reduced mass. However, lesser trabecular thickness in the 4-Gy group could not be attributed to body mass alone. Indicators of bone metabolism were generally unchanged, suggesting stabilized turnover. Exposure to (56)Fe(26+) ions can alter trabecular microarchitecture in shielded bones. Reduced body mass seems to be correlated with these deficits of trabecular and cortical bone.
Woot! Another Publication in PubMed!
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.07.30
Categories & Tags: Brookhaven National Laboratory,Clemson,High-Energy Iron Radiation,Immunity,NASA,New Publication,Props,Rats
Comments: None
Yeay! We have another publication in PubMed. Its our fourth so far this year. And we’re expecting at least two more soon. We’re also about to send out 4 more to reviewers, too. This is a banner year for us in terms of publications. Woot! These animals were irradiated at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the work was funded through NASA and LLU’s Radiation Medicine Department. We also collaborated with Clemson on this one. The bone paper from these animals has already been published.
Here’s the abstract.
Long-term changes in rat hematopoietic and other physiological systems after high-energy iron ion irradiation.
Gridley DS, Obenaus A, Bateman TA, Pecaut MJ.
Departments of Radiation Medicine.
Purpose: To assess the long-term consequences of high-linear energy transfer (LET) iron ion radiation on immune and other critical body systems in the context of assessing potential effects astronauts may experience during exploratory missions. Materials and methods: Sprague-Dawley rats were nearly whole-body irradiated with 56-Fe (5 GeV/n) to total doses of 0, 1, 2, and 4 Gray (Gy) and euthanized 9 months post-exposure for analyses. Results: Irradiated groups consistently had low body mass. Numbers of circulating white blood cells (WBC), lymphocytes and monocytes were lower in the 2 Gy group compared to 0 Gy (p < 0.05); a trend for low granulocytes was also noted. Red blood cell counts, hemoglobin, and hematocrit were decreased in irradiated animals (p < 0.05), whereas platelet counts and volume were unaffected. In the spleen, WBC counts and DNA synthesis by T cells were similar among groups and there were no differences in secreted interferon-gamma and interleukin-6. However, trends were noted for increased splenocyte capacity to secrete tumor necrosis factor-alpha and increased level of vascular endothelial cell growth factor in plasma. One or more of the irradiated groups had significant (p < 0.05) aberrations in several blood chemistry parameters associated with liver and kidney function. Conclusion: The data show that exposure to 56-Fe radiation induced pathological changes in important body systems long after exposure.
