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Experiment/Payload Overview

Brief Summary

National Lab Pathfinder - Vaccine - 2 (NLP-Vaccine-2) is a commercial payload serving as a pathfinder for the use of the International Space Station (ISS) as a National Laboratory after the ISS assembly is complete. It contains Salmonella enterica, a pathogenic (disease causing) organism, which will use space flight to develop potential vaccines for the prevention of infections on Earth and in microgravity.

Principal Investigator

Timothy Hammond, M.B.B.S., Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC

Co-Investigator(s)/Collaborator(s)

Information Pending

Payload Developer

BioServe Space Technologies, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Sponsoring Agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Expeditions Assigned

|18|

Previous ISS Missions

A similar investigation, Microbe was performed on STS-115/12A, STS-123 and STS-124/1J.

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Experiment/Payload Description

Research Summary

• Salmonella enterica strains are the most common cause of food poisoning world-wide, and a major cause of childhood death worldwide. In the US, untoward effects caused by S. enterica cost billions of dollars annually. There is currently no vaccine available for common forms of salmonella gastroenteritis which causes illness in millions of people worldwide every year.



• For National Lab Pathfinder - Vaccine - 2 (NLP-Vaccine-2), a unique and simple model of infection will be used. This work will be follow-on work to research conducted on STS-123 and STS-124 in support of NLP-Vaccine-1A and NLP-Vaccine-1B. The S. enterica will be grown in space under conditions known to effect bacterial potency, also referred to as virulence (infection potential). This approach will take advantage of knowledge gained in previous space flight studies of these bacteria. Once the experiment is completed on orbit and returned to Earth, analysis of virulence will be completed by the investigator.

Description

The 2005 NASA Authorization Act designated a portion of the International Space Station (ISS) as a National Laboratory. To fulfill that mandate, NASA is providing an opportunity for non-governmental entities to conduct research and development and potentially industrial processing on board the ISS. These opportunities aboard the ISS are considered National Lab Pathfinder (NLP) missions. These NLP missions will launch to the ISS on each available shuttle mission, until the Space Shuttle is retired. This research, National Lab Pathfinder - Vaccine - 2 (NLP-Vaccine-2) is the fourth in a series of National Lab Pathfinder missions sponsored by SPACEHAB, Incorporated.

NLP-Vaccine-2 will take advantage of knowledge gained in previous space flight studies of virulence and vaccine development. This investigation will grow Salmonella enterica in microgravity to effect the virulence (infection potential). Once the experiment is completed on orbit and returned to Earth, analysis of virulence will be completed by the investigator.

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Applications

Space Applications

Results from this experiment may help scientists more clearly understand measures that should be taken to reduce the risk of infection and contraction of disease while in space.

Earth Applications

There is currently no vaccine available for the strains of Salmonella which cause diarrhea for public use in humans. This research may help develop vaccines against this life threatening organism.

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Operations

Operational Requirements

This payload will be conducted under ambient temperature conditions and will not require image or data download.

Operational Protocols

The research will be contained in the Fluid Processing Apparatus (FPA). In order to activate the samples, the crew will turn a hand crank that has been inserted onto the top of the GAP which contains the FPAs. Once the samples have been activated for a predetermined length of time, the crew will again turn the hand crank on top of the GAPs to terminate the experiment. The terminated samples will be returned to Earth via the Space Shuttle.

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Results/More Information

NLP-Vaccine-2 was launched on Space Shuttle Endeavor STS-126/ULF2 for verification and validation of knock-out gene targets by identifying genes associated with microgravity-enhanced bacterial virulence, as the basis for formulation of attenuated vaccine.

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Related Web Sites

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Publications

Results Publications

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Related Publications

• Wilson JW, Ott CM, Hoener zu Bentrup K, Ramamurthy R, Quick L, Porwollik S, Cheng P, McClelland M, Tsaprailise G, Radabaugh T, Hunt A, Fernandez D, Richter E, Shah M, Kilcoyne M, Joshi L, Nelman-Gonzalez M, Hing S, Parra M, Dumars P, Norwood K, Bober R, Devich J, Ruggles A, Goulart C, Rupert M, Stodieck L, Stafford P, Catella L, Schurr MJ, Buchanan K, Morici L, McCracken J, Allen P, Baker-Coleman C, Hammond T, Vogel J, Nelson R, Pierson DL, Stefanyshyn-Piper HM, Nickerson CA. Space flight alters bacterial gene expression and virulence and reveals a role for global regulator Hfq. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. ;104(41):16299-16304. 2007
• Tenor JL, McCormick BA, Ausubel FM, Aballay A. Caenorhabditis elegans-based screen identifies Salmonella virulence factors required for conserved host-pathogen interactions. Current Biology. ;14 (11):1018-24. 2004 Jun 8
• Sittka A, Pfeiffer V, Tedin K, Vogel J. The RNA chaperone Hfq is essential for the virulence of Salmonella typhimurium. Molecular Microbiology. ;63(1):193-217. 2007 Jan

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Images

NASA Image: S126E007561 - STS-126/ULF2 Mission Specialist Shane Kimbrough works with the Group Activation Pack (GAP) for the National Lab Pathfinder (NLP)-Vaccine-2 experiment on the orbiter Endeavour.
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Information Provided and Updated by the ISS Program Scientist's Office