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Tampa - Aug 7, 2001 When the space shuttle Discovery blasts off on its next mission (scheduled Aug. 9), it will take ovarian cancer into space for the first time. Part of a joint project between University of South Florida College of Medicine and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the ovarian cancer cells are headed to the International Space Station to grow for two weeks in a near-gravity-free environment. The goal is to develop three- dimensional cancer cell clusters that function more like cancer in humans than the two-dimensional cell cultures traditionally grown in petri dishes. For the last nine years, USF cell biologist Jeanne Becker, PhD, has used NASA technology to grow human ovarian cancer cells in a chamber simulating low gravity at her Tampa General Hospital laboratory. The breakthrough 3-D model allows her to study how the tumor cells grow and differentiate, and, more recently, to test the effectiveness of antihormonal therapies in combating ovarian cancer. Now Dr. Becker will have the chance to see the effect of the true near-zero gravity of space on the study of ovarian cancer growth. "I believe," Dr. Becker said, "that space-based technology offers an incredibly exciting and extremely unique approach to understanding the biology of this devastating women's disease." In addition to the ovarian cancer cell line provided by Dr. Becker, experiments with kidney epithelial cells, colon cancer cells and neuroendocrine cells, supplied by three other investigators, will be conducted in space. This will be the first set of cell culture studies to be performed aboard the International Space Station.
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