BioServe helps send research into orbit

CU Space Technologies center working on Dream Chaser project

Montana State University researcher Sheila Nielsen knows that the next few weeks are going to be filled with anxiety. A project she’s been working on for almost six months is out of her hands. Way out of her hands – in space.

Once an experiment such as the one Nielsen is conducting on a yeast-infection-causing fungus launches, there’s no room for adapting on the fly or starting over if the process doesn’t work.

“It’s very nerve-wracking,” said Nielsen, whose experiment is set to launch Sept. 20 from Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that will take it to the International Space Station, where astronauts will activate it.

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That’s where the University of Colorado’s BioServe Space Technologies center comes in, helping to make sure experiments are translated into a form that can be easily conducted in space while still accomplishing their objectives – and reducing researchers’ anxiety on Earth.

Founded in 1987, BioServe specializes in conducting microgravity life-science research in space, as well as designing the hardware to support such missions for researchers from all over the country.

“We’re the organization that helps scientists implement their science,” said Stefanie Countryman, business development manager at BioServe. “There are a lot of things that a researcher does in the lab that seem easy and simple but aren’t actually easy or simple on the space station.”

BioServe last month announced an agreement to work with Sierra Nevada Corp. – which has its Space Systems Division in Louisville – on development of the Dream Chaser spacecraft. The pact will have BioServe consulting on the research capabilities of the vehicle, and eventually could lead to BioServe designing some of the research hardware for Dream Chaser missions.

The expertise needed to land such gigs has been decades in the making. Housed within the aerospace engineering department at the University of Colorado Boulder, BioServe has flown experiments on 44 space missions. The center is supporting 17 experiments that will fly over the next 18 months alone.

Nielsen’s experiment is one of three payloads that BioServe is scheduled to send into space on Sept. 20 provided the weather cooperates.

One is an animal-enclosure module being developed for NASA that is designed to support extended experiments using rodents aboard the ISS. The module previously was designed for shorter missions aboard the retired space shuttle.

The second payload is an experiment being conducted by the U.S. Veterans Administration in conjunction with the Center for Advancement of Science in Space, looking at how a certain chemotherapeutic drug is metabolized in a model organism under conditions of microgravity.

Nielsen’s experiment, meanwhile, will look at how Candida albicans – which can cause yeast infections in those with compromised immune systems – adapts to an extreme environment such as microgravity. The research could be beneficial in preventing such infections on Earth, and in protecting astronauts, who have compromised immune systems during space travel.

“It gives us insights that we wouldn’t have under normal conditions,” Nielsen said. “We think there are micro environments in the human body that have similar characteristics to what the yeast encounter in space. … (BioServe) makes it all possible.”

Nielsen’s experiment will fly in what she calls “tricked-out test tubes” from BioServe. Those fluid-processing apparatuses are enclosed in group activation packs, or GAPs. When the unmanned Dragon spacecraft docks with the space station, astronauts remove the GAPs and place them in one of two BioServe incubators that are designed to keep experiments at optimal temperatures.

The astronauts don’t generally have to know much about the experiments. They simply follow procedures laid out in advance by BioServe for activating and terminating them.

BioServe is in contact with the ISS crew to let Nielsen know when she should activate and terminate her control experiments on Earth. From their command center at CU, BioServe officials also can monitor feedback from their equipment in space, relaying information to researchers about how the experiments are going.

In addition to overseeing what happens in space, BioServe spends months on the ground helping researchers get their experiments ready.

BioServe works with NASA to request space station crew time to conduct the experiment and negotiate time windows during the trip in which researchers would like things done. BioServe also deals with technical aspects.

Timelines, for instance, can be quite different for space experiments than they would be on the ground. Since there is no liquid nitrogen on the ISS with which to flash-freeze experiments to terminate them, BioServe helps researchers figure out how to account for slower changes in temperature during which cells might still be changing.

“It’s all those little details that we help them with,” Countryman said. “Each experiment is unique that we do. It never gets routine.”

Other organizations also provide service or hardware for space research, although Countryman said BioServe is one of the “very few” that focuses on the life sciences.

For competitive reasons, Countryman said, the center doesn’t disclose the size of individual contracts. However, it operates on a roughly $3 million annual budget. That covers a full-time staff of eight to 10 plus graduate and undergraduate student employees who work on the projects.

Nielsen got a $100,000 grant from NASA to cover research time, materials and travel to Florida to prepare for launch and to California to recover the experiment upon its return. NASA funds the hardware and BioServe’s services separately.

Nielsen’s experiment is the second she’s sending to space with BioServe’s help. She said she knew nothing about conducting experiments in space, but has gotten up to speed on the procedures and various differences from doing the research on Earth.

“They had to start at ground zero with me,” she said. “There was a huge learning curve, and they were very patient and just fantastic to work with. It’s nice to partner with them.”

Joshua Lindenstein can be reached at 303-630-1943, 970-416-7343 or jlindenstein@bizwestmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @joshlindenstein.