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[Avatar of Horus]

Welcome to the CASIS Request for Proposals
The Impact of Microgravity on Fundamental Stem Cell Properties:
A Call for Spaceflight and Ground-Based Experiments

RFP No. CASIS 2013-2 | RFP Issued May 22, 2013 | Proposals Due: July 25, 2013

The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) is pleased to announce a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking to identify projects within the field of mammalian stem cell biology. CASIS is confident that this RFP will attract both experienced and new-to-space investigators interested in exploiting the effects of microgravity and the space environment’s unique conditions to investigate the fundamental properties of mammalian stem cells, including their ability to self-renew, proliferate and differentiate. CASIS will support this process through grant funding, facilitation of service-provider interactions and flight coordination to and from the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory.
CASIS staff have developed a step-by-step process to ensure potential proposers an easy, efficient submittal process. Please follow the steps below ...
See more at: http://www.iss-casis...lsResearch.aspx

Edited by Avatar of Horus, 16 June 2013 - 08:29 AM.

[Avatar of Horus]

An update:

Siobhan Malany, Ph.D., selected to conduct novel medical research in space
By Deborah Robison
June 13, 2016
http://beaker.sbpdis...earch-in-space/

Siobhan Malany, Ph.D., director of Translational Biology at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute at Lake Nona (SBP) and founder of the Institute’s first spin-off company, Micro-gRx, Inc., has been awarded $435,000 to study atrophy in muscle cells in microgravity on the International Space Station (ISS). In microgravity, conditions accelerate changes in cell growth similar to what occurs in the aging and disease process of tissues. Using real-time analysis, Malany will be able to rapidly study cells for potential new therapeutic approaches to muscle degeneration associated with aging, injury or illness.
The research project was awarded to Micro-gRx by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which operates under a cooperative agreement with NASA.
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“I’m thrilled to have been selected for this research project because of the sheer potential for new discoveries and drug therapies that can result,” says Malany, who also led a research project on the ISS in 2012 to analyze molecular processes in microgravity using fluorescence detection. “Disease modeling using human cells has become a focal point in medical research because it accelerates disease-specific drug discovery. We anticipate that there will be significant funding opportunities in this area in the years to come.”

The research experiment will involve the collection of human skeletal muscle cell samples that will be integrated into the lab-on-a-chip and replicate muscle weakness that occurs with aging. Malany will closely study what happens to myoblasts which are precursors for muscle fiber and important for skeletal muscle regeneration following injury or disease.
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