Category Biology/Biotechnology

Crash Test Cameras

2017 edition of NASA Spinoffs. NASA innovations we use in our daily lives. Here are some of our favorite things we bet you didn’t know use space technology.
1.Crash Test Cameras: Parachutes are a key part of the landing system for many of our spacecraft, but before we send them into orbit — or beyond — we have to make sure that they’re going to work as designed. One important component of testing is a video that captures every millisecond as the chute opens, to see if it’s working and if not, what went wrong. Integrated Design Tools built a camera for us that could do just that: rugged and compact, it can film up to 1,000 frames/s and back up all that data almost as fast...

This March 2016 photo provided by the City of Hope hospital shows patient Richard Grady in Duarte, Calif. Suffering from a deadly brain cancer that had spread to his spine, a novel therapy, which helped his immune system attack his disease, shrank his tumors. Grady was the first person to get cells that were genetically modified to seek and kill cancer dripped through a tube into a space in the brain where spinal fluid is made, sending the cells down the path the cancer traveled to his spine. (City of Hope via AP)

A man with deadly brain cancer that had spread to his spine saw his tumors shrink and, for a time, completely vanish after a novel treatment to help his immune system attack his disease—another first in this promising field...

A newly discovered molecular mechanism could explain some autoimmune diseases. Credit: Image courtesy of Osaka University

While the immune system is crucial for protecting the body from infection and disease, prolonged activation can damage healthy tissue. After its activation, the immune system is shut off by regulatory T cells (Treg cells). Understanding the development of Treg cells is thought to be critical for combating autoimmune diseases. “The development of Treg cells in the thymus depends on super-enhancer establishment,” explains IFReC Professor Shimon Sakaguchi.

This super-enhancer establishment permits the expression of genes specific for Treg cell development...

Illustration demonstrating the anti-cancer effect of the drug combination. Credit: Evi Bieler, NanoImaging Lab, University of Basel

A combination of a diabetes medication and an antihypertensive drug can effectively combat specific cancer cells. Metformin is the most widely prescribed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Besides its blood sugar lowering effect, it also displays anti-cancer properties. The usual therapeutic dose, however, is too low to effectively fight cancer. The team has now made an unexpected discovery: The antihypertensive drug syrosingopine potentiates the anti-cancer efficacy of metformin. Apparently, this drug combination drives cancer cells to programmed “suicide.”

At higher doses, the antidiabetic drug inhibits the growth of cancer cells but could also induc...