The International Astronautic Community has invited two students to present the result of their experiment in South Africa where the most significant congress of astronautics is taking place.

Charles Bolden, Administrator of the NASA, with Arnau Rabadan and Adèle Peenaert from the Fundació CIM

Sergi Vaquer and Arnau Rabadan, from Barcelona, exposed the outcome of their project in front of experts from NASA, ESA and other national agencies. “Speaking in front of such experts was a nerve-racking experience” said Sergi “but after 3 years of research we were confident about our results.”

Sergi and Arnau first started the project when they were studying medicine and mechanics respectively at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Catalan Polytechnic University (UPC). They continued as trainees for two Spanish reference centres: the IMIM and the Fundació CIM where they were eventually contracted.

“Developing a machine that would respond to both the medical and microgravity specifications was a challenge”, explains Arnau. “We were lucky to catch the attention of two manufacturing experts: Schneider Electric and the Fundació CIM [a technological centre of the UPC] who supported us throughout the process”.

The team was selected by the European Space Agency to conduct their experiment in Microgravity on board of parabolic flights used for the training of astronauts. There, they tested how the ABC transporters, the biological agents responsible for removing drugs and other toxins from human cells, reacted under microgravity conditions.

The result of their experiment showed that the activity of the ABC transporters in the samples that underwent microgravity was 20times lower than in the samples from the earth.

This finding is significant since it explains in part the reason why medications do not affect astronauts in the same way when they are on earth as when they are in microgravity. “When we started the project, no one wanted to invest money in it, we never imagined that we would end up shaking hands with the likes of Charles Bolden [the current Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps major general, and former NASA astronaut] and sharing experiences with Caddie [Catherine Coleman: astronaut in the International Space Station]!”

Arnau Rabadan with “Caddie” [Catherine Coleman, astronaut at the International Space Station during 159days]

Following the presentation, the young investigators have been approached to conduct further research on the exact mechanisms behind these differences and the way to work around them.

Arnau Rabadan and Sergi Vaquer at the congress

Presentation of the project

The International Astronautical Congress

Every year, the International Astronautical Federation together with the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), holds the International Astronautical Congress (IAC). The IAC is an annual meeting of the actors in the discipline of space and consists of plenary sessions, lectures and meetings. In addition there is a large exhibition running concurrently.

The congress is attended by the agency heads and senior executives of the world's space agencies along with academics, researchers, industry and commerce executives, students and young professionals.

The 62nd International Astronautical Congress is held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 3 - 7 October 2011.

The parabolic flights

The parabolic flights have originated as part of the training of astronauts. During the flights the aircraft accelerates as it gains altitude, then the engines are reduced to a minimum for 20 seconds while the plane traces a parabola in freefall. For these 20 seconds, conditions close to zero gravity are attained within the cabin. These manoeuvres are repeated up to 30 times during a flight, so that so that researchers, after a campaign that lasts three hours will have had the opportunity to experiment with microgravity over a considerable time.

To embark, the prototype designed by the Catalan team overcame a series of strict tests ensuring the mechanical resistance, electronic security and temperature control of the equipment.

Development of the experiment

The experiment studied the behaviour of ABC transporters, biological agents that are responsible for removing drugs and other toxins from human cells, under microgravity conditions. For this purpose, the students have developed a special protocol to enable the activity of these molecules to be measured very accurately during the 20 seconds of microgravity in each of the 30 parabolas on a parabolic flight.
Arnau Rabadan was in charge of the technical part of the experiment that involves designing a mechanism to mix the biomedical fluid and the ABC transporters inside a syringe, activating the chemical reaction. All of this must be done at 37ºC, that is, human body temperature. After 20 seconds the system introduces a liquid into the syringe to freeze the mixture so that it would not be affected by gravity and the experiment was repeated in the next parabola.
The mechanism is regulated by a control system, since the conditions for the experiment and the quantity of liquids to be injected must be precisely set. The control system includes active elements, such as the motor to drive the syringes, and also supervisory elements, such as the sensors to regulate the temperature of the syringe where the mixing is done.

The ABCtr Sponsors

Schneider Electric, IMIM Foundation CIM Interempresa, solvent Biotechnology, TecniSample, Lloveras, Safety Engineers, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, School of Industrial Engineers of Barcelona.

The ABCtr Team

Sergi Vaquer, coordinator of the project, has worked as a crew physician at the Crew Medical Support Office of the ESA European Astronaut Centre, Cologne, and is currently a resident physician at the Hospital Parc Taulí in Sabadell (associated with the UAB) and a researcher at the Municipal Medical Research Institute (IMIM) of the Hospital del Mar.
Arnau Rabadán, mechanical engineer is currently working as a researcher and project manager at the Fundació. In addition, he participates to the Barcelona Moon Team where he coordinates the call for proposals to send experiments to the moon as part of the Google Lunar X Prize competition.
Felip Fenollosa, Director of the Foundation CIM and associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the UPC, supervised the engineering, manufacturing and tuning of the equipment for the flight.
 

Arnau and Sergi before flying (first and third standing on the right)

Arnau Rabadan and Sergi Vaquer in microgravity

The experiment

Web of the project: http://www.abctransporters.com/

Information:
Adèle Peenaert
Head of the Project Office of the Fundació CIM
Tel. +34 93 401 71 71; +34 651909996
apeenaert@cim.upc.edu