Technology Transfer

NASA Contributes to the Medical Industry

IN AEROSPACE DESIGN, EVERY SUBSYSTEM must be super-efficient and ultra-reliable, yet as small and light as technology permits. Many types of medical devices share these requirements. That is one reason why the field of health and medicine has been a particular beneficiary of aerospace spinoffs. The United States leads the world in the technology of building complete, reliable aerospace systems in incredibly tiny packages, and that technology has spawned a line of life-saving medical adaptations. For example:

• A line of cordless surgical instruments needing no power source, lines or hoses was spawned by the same NASA-contracted company that produced a line of cordless tools for consumer and industrial use based on a lunar drill. For lunar exploration, the Apollo astronauts needed a compact, lightweight, battery-powered long-use drill to extract core samples from beneath the lunar surface.
• Newborn premature babies are warmed, without noise or burn hazard, in cradles whose electricity-conducting canopies provide controlled radiant heat, an offshoot of NASA technology developed for heated cockpit canopies and astronaut helmet faceplates.
• A contractor developed an automatic gas analyzer to monitor Apollo astronauts' respiratory gases; it is now used in hospitals for the analysis of anesthetics.
• A tiny mote of dust could trigger a malfunction in a sensitive spacecraft system, so NASA developed contamination control technology for the assembly of sensitive flight equipment in hospital-like "clean rooms." One of several offshoots of that technology base is a line of advanced, disposable, inexpensive anti-contamination garments for hospitals and pharmaceutical clean rooms.

These are just a few examples of how a technology developed for space research generates new technology for the manufacturing of everyday products. Described here are only a few of thousands of applications of aerospace technology that have provided extraordinary benefits to the field of health and medicine.

NASA Crusades for Women's Health

NASA, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has taken the lead in women's illnesses by outlining a commitment to identify, develop and transfer NASA technologies to benefit women's health in major areas of concern: cancer, reproductive health, pregnancy, osteoporosis and education. Outlined in a NASA agreement with the Office of Women's Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a cooperative framework with Ames Research Center was established to team industry, academia and government. Several NASA biomedical experiments have resulted in successful new technology programs among NASA, NIH, the National Cancer Institute and the Office of Women's Health.

The Fight Against Cancer

There is almost no word as terrifying to a person as cancer. NASA is working with medical researchers and institutions to help understand, diagnose and treat various types of cancer, such as colon, prostate, breast and ovarian. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death for women age 35 to 50, and recent studies have shown an increase in melanoma.

Finding Breast Cancer With Hubble Technology

This breast cancer probe, a spinoff of a larger computerized robotic surgery assistant, is designed to "see" a lump, determine by its features whether it is cancerous and predict the cancer's progress.

NASA has contributed nearly a dozen breakthroughs in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Silicon chips used in the Hubble Space Telescope were adapted so physicians can better detect tiny spots in breast tissue. Doctors can then take biopsies using a needle rather than subject a patient to expensive and painful surgery. This new procedure eliminates scarring or disfigurement, requires half the time of traditional techniques, reduces exposure to x-rays and dramatically cuts costs.
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New Drug for Melanoma

In January 1998, the Food and Drug Administration approved Proleukin¨ for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma cancer. Human clinical trials are also under way for other treatment therapies, such as an adjunct treatment for AIDS. Protein crystals researched for the new drug were grown in space.

NASA Bioreactor for Cancer Treatment

NASA and the University of South Florida are funding research focused on the development of three-dimensional tissue models of breast and ovarian cancer. Using the bioreactor, a special tissue culture chamber designed by NASA, scientists are able to grow cells that form themselves into structures similar to tissues found in the human body. This information is useful in testing sensitivity to chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, which is important to the treatment of breast and ovarian cancer.

Smart Robot Probe for Cancer Detection

NASA technology being developed to perform surgery on astronauts in space is being adapted to robotic technology to help physicians operate on delicate parts of the human body, including the brain and the breast. Led by the NeuroEngineering Group at NASA's Ames Research Center, scientists have developed a robot that can map physical characteristics of the brain, allowing the surgeon to make precise movements during surgery. The technology is being modified further to have the robot feel tumors in other parts of the body to determine severity and appropriate treatment. The experimental robot can use a smaller, less invasive probe, and it can make more delicate and precise movements than a human, thus reducing damage to healthy tissue and arteries.

"To enable the instrument to recognize cancer and predict its progress, we use special neural net software that is trained and learns from experience," said Robert Mah of Ames Research Center's Neuroengineering Laboratory at Moffett Field, California. He added that scientists can teach the breast cancer diagnosis device to predict how aggressive the disease may be.

"We hope to use this device not only to detect cancer, but to understand the nature of an individual cancer," said Dr. Stefanie Jeffrey, an assistant professor of surgery and Chief of Breast Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California. Dr. Jeffrey is working with Mah to develop the device. "This information may help us determine the distinctive features of a malignancy and how the disease may progress; more knowledge about the cancer may guide us to better individualizing treatment."

The breast cancer tool is a spinoff from a computerized robotic brain surgery "assistant" that was previously developed by Mah and Dr. Russell Andrews, a neurosurgeon. The larger brain surgery device is a simple robot that can "learn" the physical characteristics of the brain and may soon give surgeons finer control of surgical instruments during delicate brain operations.

Using Light to Treat Tumors

Special lights developed to grow plants in space are helping treat brain tumors in children. In this aggressive therapy, the doctor injects a light-sensitive, cancer-fighting drug into the bloodstream. The drug attaches to the affected tissue. The doctor places a device the size of a small finger near the tissue. The device emits light, activating the drug. The drug penetrates and destroys only affected tissue. This innovative, photodynamic procedure will be used in critical medical cases. See the "Small Business/SBIR" section of this issue of Innovation for more information, or visit http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/new/tumorsrel.html

A Matter of the Heart

Cardiovascular disease is a big killer in the United States. NASA's work is going a long way in understanding how space flight affects the cardiovascular system in both men and women.

The Beat of Your Heart

NASA's bidirectional telemetry technology, first used to communicate with satellites, was the basis for a company's development of a pacemaker that can be programmed from outside the body. NASA requirements for miniature electronics made the technology possible. It was used in another instrument, an implantable defibrillator, which senses irregular heartbeats and automatically delivers an electrical stimulus to get the heart back on track. Visit http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff1996/25.html

Your Blood Pressure

The now-familiar device that you slip your arm into at doctors' offices and pharmacies to check your blood pressure was commercialized from various prototypes based on technology NASA developed to be able to monitor the health of astronauts while in space. This semi-automatic instrument provides a very accurate blood pressure measurement, and the results appear quickly and conveniently on a digital display.

Treating Heart Disease

Laser angioplasty offers heart patients an alternative to surgery in the treatment of clogged arteries. A laser system first used for satellite-based studies of the atmosphere has been reapplied to treat atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries. NASA research led to the development of an excimer laser that is now routinely used to clean arteries without damage to blood vessel walls. This is particularly important because another nonsurgical treatment once often chosen by doctors, balloon angioplasty, is sometimes ruled out for females because their blood vessels are often too small for the treatment.

Diabetes Diagnostics and Treatment

Clipped to a patient's clothing, the minipump delivers insulin continuously at a preprogrammed rate adjusted to the individual, allowing the insulin-dependent diabetic to lead a more normal life.

NASA does not have a diabetes research program, but the agency is conducting research that has an impact on the fight against diabetes. NASA sponsors protein crystal growth, three-dimensional tissue culturing and noninvasive diagnostic technologies research that can support the development of improved treatments.

The space agency has grown human insulin crystals on two Space Shuttle missions to a quality that has not been achieved on Earth. X-ray defraction crystallization has provided a more precise structural view of insulin molecules, which could lead to new insulin therapies through improved control over the effective rate of release of insulin into the blood stream.

One example of NASA's new noninvasive diagnostic technology is a portable laser that can help the early detection of diabetes-related optical problems. This technology sends light waves through the eye's internal structure, which also leads to better treatment of diabetes at earlier stages of the disease. Retinopathy, or retina disease, can be caused or accelerated by diabetes, making the disease the leading cause of adult blindness in North America. The laser was developed to send light waves through the eye's internal structure as a light-scattering instrument to detect cataracts and other eye abnormalities in humans.

NASA and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation have joined in an agreement to research the treatment and monitoring of diabetes and diabetes-related problems, using their respective strengths.

Space Crystals Provide Hope for Diabetes

Results from a 1994 insulin crystal growth experiment in space is leading to a new understanding of diabetes that may someday reduce patients' insulin injections. The largest insulin crystals ever studied were grown on the Space Shuttle. Earth-grown insulin crystals are not as large or as well ordered because they obscure the blueprint of the insulin molecules. The crystals are grown in space because the absence of gravity allows large and perfect crystalline structures to form.

The better three-dimensional view of the extremely complex insulin molecule is giving scientists a new opportunity to study in more detail the delicate balance of the insulin molecule to learn how the body regulates insulin release. In diabetes patients, insulin is not produced in sufficient quantity, nor regulated properly.

These results have the potential to improve the quality of life for diabetes patients and to significantly reduce expensive treatments by reducing a patient's number of insulin injections. Diabetes treatments account for one-seventh of the nation's health care costs.

Space Shuttle Experiment a Sweet Success

Experiments aboard the Space Shuttle may help safely satisfy the sweet tooths of diabetics and those watching their waistlines. In a control study, a team of French and American scientists found that space crystals of the sweet protein called thaumatin, a natural molecule isolated from the African serendipity berry (Thaumatococcus daniellii), showed a nearly 25-percent larger volume and yielded twice the crystalline order, compared to its Earth-grown counterparts.

Calorie-free thaumatin is more than 10 times sweeter than other sugar substitutes, such as saccharin or aspartame. Scientists hope to use the space-grown crystals to improve the biological understanding of how these molecules work, based on detailed knowledge of their shape and exact atomic positions.

A widespread search for noncaloric and safe natural sugar is the result of the complex and costly management of human diabetes, obesity and oral health. Thaumatin already is being marketed as a nutritional supplement in blood sugar stabilizers for childhood behavioral problems and the more than 3.5 million sufferers from attention deficit disorder. Among soft drink consumers alone, nearly 20.6 million tons of chemicals are used around the world, nearly four kilograms per capita, with a growth rate of about 20 percent toward the end of the decade.

According to the team's report, the space crystals reinforce the conclusion of other reports that microgravity-grown thaumatin crystals compared to many Earth-grown trials were consistently and significantly larger, as well as substantially more defect free. This is the first experiment to produce space crystals by multiple methods, with both methods suggesting the same conclusion.

Balance Disorders

During and after space flight, astronauts experience difficulty in keeping their balance. A commercial company has used NASA technology for testing astronauts after space flight to produce a system to assess the extent of patients' balance problems and then retrain them for better mobility. The system, known as NeuroCom's Balance Master, assesses and then retrains patients with balance and mobility problems. NeuroCom received assistance in research and funding from NASA, and the company incorporated technology from testing mechanisms for astronauts after Space Shuttle flights.

The EquiTest and Balance Master systems are computerized posturography machines that measure patient responses to the movement of a platform on which the subject is standing or sitting. The machines then provide assessments of the patient's postural alignment and stability.

This technology is already in use in several medical centers. Many people, especially older individuals, are suffering from balance disorders, a frequent cause of falls and broken bones. NASA is working with the NIH to find ways to counteract this condition. Shuttle research on the body's balance system has resulted in new discoveries of sensory pathways and the nervous system's ability to adapt.

Osteoporosis

Astronauts lose bone density during space flight, which is similar to osteoporosis, the brittle bone condition affecting many older people on Earth, particularly women. Together, NASA and the NIH are studying how this condition develops and how to counteract it in space, which is important in preventing and treating this debilitating condition on Earth. NASA research has already led to the development of a fast and inexpensive tool to measure the extent of osteoporosis by analyzing the stiffness of bones. It takes measurements without exposing the patient to radiation. For more information, visit http://weboflife.arc.nasa.gov/EXPLORATIONS/ EARTH_BENES/osteo.html

For more information, contact the NASA Commercial Technology Network by calling the National Technology Transfer Center. Call: 800/678-6882, E-mail: www.nctn.hq.nasa.gov Please mention you read about it in Innovation.