Space-bound fruit fly cultures in a vented fly box
Fruit fly cultures in vented fly boxes aboard the ISS
Hurtling around Earth, at 17,500 mph some 248 miles in space, is a small swarm of City College of New York-bred fruit flies and their parasitic wasps. The insects, from biologist Shubha Govind鈥檚 lab, are part of an experiment on (ISS) whose outcome could be beneficial to astronauts on exploration missions.
Three years ago, Govind was the recipient of a $500,000 NASA grant for the project entitled 鈥淒oes spaceflight alter the virulence of a natural parasite of Drosophila?鈥 Drosophila is a genus of small flies attracted to ripening fruit. They are often called fruit flies.
The flies were shuttled to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft this month for the culmination of the project.
鈥淎stronauts鈥 immune systems can be vulnerable to infections and dysfunction on long-duration space exploration missions, and it is important that we understand how they react to spaceflight conditions,鈥 explained Govind, professor in CCNY鈥檚 Division of Science. 鈥淭he fruit fly has served as a stand-in for human research for over a century. Its genome has more than 70% of the disease genes identified in humans. The mechanisms鈥 underlying innate immunity鈥攖he first line defense against parasites and pathogens, is conserved between flies and humans.鈥
Govind said the results of the experiment would provide a paradigm for how the human immune system might be affected by an infectious agent in microgravity conditions. 鈥淭hey will also inform us on the parasites鈥 ability to succeed on their hosts in microgravity,鈥 she added.
The flies are scheduled back on Earth on May 2 after 30 days in space.
Post-flight research will be done mainly at CCNY in collaboration with NASA scientists from the Ames Research Center.
Govind鈥檚 collaborators include of NASA鈥檚 Ames Research Center, who is the grant鈥檚 co-investigator.
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