GLIOSAT: A PROJECT TO STUDY THE COMBINED EFFECT OF IONIZING RADIATION AND MICROGRAVITY ON GLIOBLASTOMA MULTIFORME CELLS

In the last two decades, the Group of Astrodynamics at the Aerospace Engineering School of University “Sapienza (GAUSS) of Rome has been involved in the design and manufacturing of 4 microsatellites within the Unisat Program. In this framework different payloads have been carried out and tested in orbit. Considering that the astronautic engineer will play a fundamental role in future human space activities, the GAUSS group is opening its research field to biomedical missions. For this reason in 2008 a biomedical payload for Unisat-5, GlioSat, has been proposed. This research involved not only astronautical engineering but also biologists, medical scientists and geneticists, where also supported by Genetica Medica, IRCCS-Hospital CSS of San Giovanni Rotondo. The primary objective of GlioSat is to investigate if the combined effect of microgravity and ionizing radiation would increase or decrease the survival rate of Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cancer cells. Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive kind of primary brain tumour, accounting for 52% of all primary brain tumour cases and 20% of all intracranial tumours. Radiotherapy is the only treatment for this cancer that increases the median survival time. The biological effects of ionizing radiations and microgravity on the human body in space are the key concerns for space exploration and, at the same time, they could provide potentially successful biomedical applications and treatments. While radiotherapy is used on the ground for curative or adjuvant cancer treatment, it is possible that the combined effects of ionizing radiations and microgravity in space could either increase or decrease the survival rate of GBM cancer cells. A cell set, similar to the one in orbit, be monitored in parallel on the ground, to compare the cell behaviour in a terrestrial environment to the one in orbit, in order to understand possible differences. During this research also a joint collaboration with the Exomedicine-Cancer Research Center at Space Science Center of the Morehead State University (MSU) in Kentucky has been carried out. In this framework a 3U cubelabs (GlioLab) has been designed by students of both universities. During a thirty-day mission on the International Space Station (ISS), the GlioLab mission will test in orbit the behaviour of glioblastoma cancer cells and healthy neuronal cells, which are extremely fragile and require complex experimentation and testing.