Posted by Al Gordon on December 11, 1997 at 08:38:14:
In Reply to: Re: JDF/NASA Workshop posted by Joe F. on December 11, 1997 at 00:38:08:
NASA's role was quite small in the conference. There was one mention of a non-invasive blood glucose meter under development at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. However, when I spoke to Dr. Neal Pellis, Program manager for Biotechnology Cell Science Program at NASA, he was unfamiliar with the project. There was no discussion of such a meter at any time during the conference.
Dr. Nellis made a presentation on an earthbound microgravity bioreactor called the SRLV (Slowly Rotating Lateral Vessel). Dr. Pellis had a good sense of humor, and was the first to laugh at NASA's tendency to invent acronyms (he suggested that a NASA petri dish is an NRLV, or non-rotating lateral vessel). Anyway, the SRLV is like a small desktop drum that rotates around its horizontal axis, and contains oxygenated water and a mixture of cells. Because of the slow rotation, all the cells are in continuous free-fall, much as they would be in a shuttle orbit. This environment avoids the normal sedimentation of cells that would occur in a stationary container as a result of gravity, while the rotation is so slow that there is not a problem with hydrostatic shear.
I have to admit that the SRLV appeared to be a very elegant, and admirably cheap, solution to the problem of creating some of the conditions of microgravity for cells on the surface of the earth. My hat is off to NASA for creating a device that costs a few thousand dollars, rather than a few million dollars.
The interesting part was that gravity did not seem to be a big problem for most researchers. My personal opinion is that certain people are so titillated at the prospect of working in the gee-whiz world of NASA, that they have convinced themselves that NASA can help in finding a cure for diabetes. Also, any collaborative research with NASA would assure many years of reliable funding for hungry researchers. I have heard nothing so far that makes me believe this work is on the critical path of any important and credible diabetes research.
If we were all obscenely rich and had already found a way to restore normoglycemia to people with diabetes, then it would be fun to play around with microgravity. However, in prioritizing where we put our funding dollars, there are many more immediate prospects that could help our families.
You had a question about JDFI's CEO being a paid position. Isn't that information available somewhere as part of a required disclosure with the US government? Sorry, I don't really have an answer to your question.
Al