Page 170 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

This work provides ways to diagnose, treat and
minimize the consequences of stones that may
form while in space. A particular series of research
Combined with its other capabilities, the flexible investigations is making further
ultrasound technology provides welcome relief for advancements in cancer therapy
astronauts in space and people on the ground.
using the distinctive microgravity

Cancer-targeted Treatments from environment aboard the ISS.
Space Station Discoveries

Invasive and systemic cancer treatment is a necessary
evil for many people with the devastating diagnosis.
These patients endure therapies with ravaging side combination of liquids in a bubble shape because
effects, including nausea, immune suppression, hair surface tension forces took over and allowed the fluids
loss and even organ failure, in hopes of eradicating to interface rather than sit atop one another. Studying
cancerous tissues in the body. If treatments targeted the samples upon return to Earth allowed scientists to
a patient’s cancerous tissues, it could provide clinicians understand how to make a device that could create
with an alternative to lessen the delivery of toxic levels the same microcapsules on Earth.
of chemotherapy or radiation. Remarkably, research
that began in space may soon result in such options The MEPS-II system has been brought to commercial
here on Earth. scale under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) Good Manufacturing Practice requirements,
A particular series of research investigations is making and commercialization of the MEPS technology and
further advancements in cancer therapy using the methods to develop new applications for these unique
distinctive microgravity environment aboard the ISS. microcapsules is underway. The space station research
A process known as microencapsulation, which is led to 13 licensed microcapsule-related patents, and
being investigated aboard the space station, is able to two that are currently pending.
produce tiny, liquid-filled, biodegradable micro-balloons
containing specific combinations of concentrated anti-
tumor drugs. Using specialized needles, doctors could
deliver these micro-balloons, or microcapsules, directly
to specific treatment sites within a cancer patient,
effectively revolutionizing cancer treatment.
Dr. Dennis Morrison of NASA’s Johnson Space Center
used the microgravity environment aboard the space
station for microencapsulation experiments as a tool
to develop the Earth-based technology, called the
Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing System-II
(MEPS-II), to make the most effective microcapsules.
The technique for making these microcapsules could
not be done on Earth because the different densities
of the liquids would layer. However, in space,
microgravity brought together two liquids incapable
of mixing on Earth (80% water and 20% oil) in
such a way that spontaneously caused liquid-filled
microcapsules to form as spherical, tiny, liquid-filled The oil contains a visualization marker that is
bubbles surrounded by a thin, semipermeable traceable by ultrasound and CT scans to allow
outer membrane. doctors to follow the microcapsules as they
are site-specifically delivered to the tumor. The
In space, surface tension shapes liquids into spheres. semipermeable outer skin releases the drug slowly,
Each molecule on a liquid’s surface is pulled with through its physical ability to be timed released.
equal tension by its neighbors. The closely integrated
molecules form into the smallest possible area, which Image credit: NuVue Therapeutics, Inc.
is a sphere. In effect, the MEPS-II system allowed a

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