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
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.
Space in the news
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.10.27
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.”
China and Spaceflight
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.09.27
Categories & Tags: Brookhaven National Laboratory,China,Current Events,Politics
Comments: None
It looks like China is jumping into the space race in a big way. Of course, they released a triumphant press release even before the launch. So who knows if we’ll ever hear what’s really happening up there. But no matter what happens, I look on this as a good thing. Hopefully, with other players in the game that might not always have our best interests at heart, the people making decisions about space-related research will wake up and realize that we can easily fall behind without sufficient funding. Nothing like a little bit of competition to shake things up. I just hope that whoever wins the next election understands this.
BTW, here’s Obama’s Plan. And here is McCain’s Plan.
CU to Fly Shuttle Experiments to ISS
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.06.03
Categories & Tags: BioServe Space Technologies,Current Events,International Space Station,Microgravity,Space Shuttle,University of Colorado
Comments: None
It looks like my old lab at CU, BioServe Space Technologies, has just signed an agreement with NASA to fly experiments on all of the remaining shuttle missions to the International Space Station. Congratulations!
I’m not sure what they are planning for experiments except that they will likely be biological in nature. They’ve flown on dozens of flights so far with experiments ranging from plant physiology to bacterial resistance to antibiotics to full-blown mouse and rat experiments. I was lucky enough to be involved with experiments in each of those categories while I was there. You’d be amazed by what they can do with a test tube.
“Studies suggest space flight can result in the suppression of the immune system of both humans and animals, and previous studies have shown microgravity can alter growth rates, virulence, drug resistance and gene expression in microorganisms like salmonella,” said Stefanie Countryman, BioServe business manager and coordinator of education outreach.
Hmmm. I wonder if they’ll be looking for a bioengineer who knows a little about immunity and radiation. Psssst. Louis, have your people call my people.
Thanks to Sam & Angela Smith for the heads up.
When a busted toilet could be a major catastrophe…
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.05.29
Categories & Tags: Astronaut Health,Bacteria,Current Events,Immunity,International Space Station,Microgravity,Radiation
Comments: 3
Most of you have probably heard by now that the toilet in the Russian-built Zvezda module of the International Space Station is on the fritz. Solid waste is ok. Liquid waste ain’t. Basically, the vacuum pump doesn’t suck when it’s supposed to due to a “‘fabrication flaw’ in the toilet’s compressor units.”
NASA says they have worked out a way to keep things running up there until the Space Shuttle Discovery arrives with replacement parts…which may or may not fix the problem permanently. And by running, I mean, it requires half an hour and two astronauts to make sure everything is rinsed, decontaminated, and flushed properly.
On Earth, that’s a relatively minor problem. In orbit, it can be a serious problem, but fixable. In open space, it could be a major disaster. And here’s why.
It’s a good day to start a blog…
Posted by: Ubertramp on 2008.05.24
Categories & Tags: Current Events,Introduction,Props
Comments: None
Hello everyone. This is my first real entry to this blog. I’m hoping for good things with this, but we’ll see how it goes. It will quickly become obvious that I’m a relative newbie. Anyway. A quick look around the site and you’ll see that we have a lot going on.
On May 27, Farnaz will be representing out lab at the annual meeting of the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society (PNIRS) in Madison, WI. Farnaz will be presenting a poster describing some of our results from a recent space shuttle experiment (STS-118). She’s pretty excited about going as this will be the first time we have presented this work to an international audience. We’ve already presented some of it locally, at
When she returns, we’re hoping to run our latest set of experiments for her dissertation work. These will involve the effects of proton radiation on CNS-Immune communication and phagocytic function. She is focusing on sympathetic nervous system pathways with an emphasis on the local microenvironment in the spleen. She will characterize cFOS expression in the hypothalamus, beta-adrenergic receptor and cAMP expression in splenocytes (both macrophages and T cells) and, finally, circulating catecholamine and inflammatory cytokine expression. This is on top of scheduling beam time and getting all of us organized. I don’t think she realizes yet how much work she has ahead of her, but she’ll find out soon enough. Hehehe.
This summer, we will continue our low-dose/low-dose-rate experiments. And, more than likely, continue our running debate about hormesis. There is a growing body of evidence which seems to suggest that very low doses of radiation are actually protective, in terms of the likelihood of cancer induction after a subsequent exposure to a higher dose of radiation. This is probably because low doses of radiation increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) and anti-oxidant expression. However, I’m still not so sure this is a good thing for anything other than immune surveillance for malignancies. I believe this hormetic response has a “dark side.” Namely, the increase in ROS will also result in an increase in anti-inflammatory responses. This, in turn, will result in a decrease in the ability to respond to an immune challenge from an external source, such as bacteria.
Well that’s it for now. Hope this is of interest to some of you and look forward to hearing from everyone as we go.
