La Jolla institute sending experiment to space station to benefit health of astronauts – The San Diego Union-Tribune

The Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla is sending 2,000 fruit flies to the International Space Station to study how micro-gravity affects the insects hearts research that could benefit astronauts who one day travel beyond Earths orbit.

Fruit flies are routinely used as a proxy for humans because their genetic makeup is similar, as is the pace of their heartbeat.

A spacecraft is scheduled to carry the flies to the space station on June 1 and return them to Earth on July 5 or 6.

A team led by Karen Ocorr, a neurobiologist at the institute, plans to perform a series of tests when the flies are brought back to this planet. It intends to examine everything from how well the insects hearts function to which genes are expressed in certain conditions.

Research like this can help tell us learn what would happen to astronauts who go to Mars, or who stay in colonies on the moon, Ocorr said Monday. Both missions could happen in the not-too-distant future. So could sending astronauts to mine asteroids.

The work also will help us understand what happens to people who spend extended time in bed people who are infirm or who have diseases, she added.

Fruit flies have been used to model congenital heart disease in humans, as well as cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia, among other afflictions.

Twitter: @grobbins

gary.robbins@sduniontribune.com

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La Jolla institute sending experiment to space station to benefit health of astronauts - The San Diego Union-Tribune