Institute to send 2 molecular experiments to Space Station

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute is heading to space. Research teams from Lake Nona and its counterpart in La Jolla, Calif., won an international competition to send experiments to the International Space Station, Space Florida announced this week.

They are among the eight winners selected in a Space Florida’s competition. The winning experiments will go to space in late 2013.

Sanford- Burnham Orlando’s project will use a piece of lab technology installed on the space station last summer to analyze molecular processes in microgravity.

The equipment is a plate reader, used in labs to detect and measure biological or chemical reactions that occur in tiny test tubes.

The researchers will conduct molecular experiments in the plate reader at the space station, while conducting a simultaneous experiment in their Lake Nona lab. They will compare molecular processes to see how they differ.

The experiment could open the door for future advanced biology and pharmacology research in microgravity.

In the second experiment, researchers will send fruit flies to the space station to see how the insects’ hearts fare in space. Fruitfly cardiovascular systems are remarkably similar to human hearts, making them ideal for studying cardiovascular changes during space travel, said Rolf Bodmer of SanfordBurnham.