Fruit Fly Research on the Space Station

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Fruit Fly Immunity Fails with Fungus After (Space)Flight

Before you swat away the next fruit fly, consider instead just how similar its biological complexities are to our own. In a study published in PLOS ONE, researchers led by Deborah Kimbrell, Ph.D., at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) and their collaborators, studied how microorganisms may alter fruit flies’ immunity in space and in hypergravity, or increased gravity. The article is titled “Toll Mediated Infection Response Is Altered by Gravity and Spaceflight in Drosophila.”

This study suggests that having normal gravity or hypergravity on the space station may help mitigate some of the biological problems, including weakened immune response, in organisms living in space. Since fruit flies have similar immune response mechanisms to humans, this knowledge may help NASA create specialized countermeasures to keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space missions to an asteroid or Mars.

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ScienceCasts: Fruit Flies on the International Space Station

Visit http://science.nasa.gov/ for more.

A new species is about to join astronauts on the International Space Station: Drosophila melanogaster, also known as the "fruit fly." Genetically speaking, the bug-eyed insects have a lot in common with human beings, and they are poised to teach researchers a great deal about voyaging into deep space.

Credit: NASA

Source: NASA - Multimedia

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Space Station Live: Fruit Flies in Space

NASA Public Affairs Officer Lori Meggs interviews Sharmila Bhattacharya, principal investigator for the Ames Student Fruit Fly Experiment, and Amy Gresser, Deputy Project Scientist. SpaceX-4 is scheduled to launch to the station Sept. 20. The Dragon commercial cargo craft will deliver the important research benefiting life on Earth as well as future exploration missions.

Credit: NASA

Source: NASA - Multimedia

[ROGER]

Of topic , yet relevant I would think . Gravity studies are really behind and testing tells us we need some thing for the long term missions beyong LEO . http://www.space.com/24904-gravity-for-mars-missions.html

Edited September 19, 2014 by ROGER

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Of topic ,

Very!

yet relevant I would think .

How could a six month old review of a science-FICTION book which suggest we will need artificial gravity for crewed flights to Mars be relevant to scientific research on fruit flies on the ISS?

I realise that the research on the flies is research on the long term effects of micro-gravity on living organisms, but it's relevance to the article you have linked to is extremely tenuous to say the least.

If it is a subject that you wish to discuss then by all means do so (it is an interesting subject), but do so by starting a new topic, not by hijacking an existing one with off topic posts.