Worms in space!

Worms should be checking in for a flight onboard the Space Shuttle later this year - to help researchers investigate the effect of zero gravity on the body’s muscle development and physiology.

The worms will spend about two weeks in the Japanese Kibo laboratory onboard the International Space Station (ISS) before returning to earth. Dr Nathaniel Szewczyk, from the Institute of Clinical Research in Derby, studies the signals that control muscle protein degradation and is an old hand at organising space travel for worms to do this - The 2009 mission will be his fourth space worm project.

Dr Szewczyk said: “Worms are an excellent model to study the genetic basis of muscle atrophy. This flight should allow us to continue to uncover new ways muscle atrophy is controlled. Our current results suggest that our findings from this space flight mission may be of particular interest not only to astronauts but also to individuals who are bed ridden, immobilized in casts, aged, or who suffer diabetes.”

Dr Szewczyk’s work centres on the microscopic worm, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). His aim is to understand more about muscle atrophy in the hope of helping people who suffer from muscle wasting which can be caused by a myriad of diseases and conditions. Dr Szewczyk wants to explain why astronauts can experience dramatic muscle loss - some astronauts can lose up to 60 per cent of their muscle density in a single mission.

The C. elegans was the first multi-cellular organism to have its genetic structure completely mapped and many of its 20,000 genes perform the same functions as those in humans. Two thousand of these genes have a role in promoting muscle function and 50 to 60 per cent of these have very obvious human counterparts.

Dr Szewczyk’s C. elegans made news in 2003 when they survived the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Living in petri dishes and enclosed in aluminium canisters the worms survived re-entry and impact on the ground and were recovered weeks after the disaster.