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Oviedo, Florida, a company that operates
and maintains facilities for NASA and the
U.S. Air Force. “Each partner has its own
task,” says Ray Lugo, head of UCF’s Florida
Space Institute. He says Metropolitan Uni-
versity will continue its work in education
and public outreach, Yang Enterprises will
focus on maintenance and operations, and
UCF will concentrate on research.
Lugo says the consortium also wants to
bring in new customers for the telescope
to contribute to costs. He says the Depart-
ment of Defense may want to use Arecibo
to test sensors, while space mining com-
panies could use it to scope out target
asteroids. Another possible customer is
the privately funded Breakthrough Listen BIOMEDICINE
project, which is scanning radio signals
from the cosmos for signs of alien intel- Restraining immunity could
ligence, although Pete Worden, chairman
of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation in
Menlo Park, California, cautions, “We will lower high blood pressure
need to do a careful analysis of the value
and costs.” Researchers hope to launch clinical trial of new strategy Downloaded from
The consortium also plans to expand the
telescope’s scientific capabilities, in part by
upgrading equipment broken during Hur- By Mitch Leslie ately at the moment,” says vascular biologist
ricane Maria (Science, 10 November 2017, Grant Drummond of La Trobe University in
p. 704). The agreement with UCF also rec- t’s fairly easy to give mice hypertension. Melbourne, Australia.
ognizes Arecibo’s significance for Puerto Just regularly dose them with the hor- Scientists first suggested that the immune
Rico, Ulvestad says. “It’s a hugely impor- mone angiotensin II. But mixing a mol- system modifies blood pressure more than
tant technological icon in an underserved ecule called 2-HOBA into the animals’ 50 years ago. But a 2007 study by Harrison, http://science.sciencemag.org/
community,” he says. drinking water returns their blood pres- Guzik, and colleagues was a watershed. The
Among scientists, relief that the facil- I sure almost to normal, vascular biologist researchers infused angiotensin II into mice
ity avoided closure mingles with regret David Harrison of the Vanderbilt University genetically altered to lack two types of im-
that NSF is withdrawing its support. “I School of Medicine in Nashville and col- mune cells: B cells and T cells. The animals’
am pleased by the commitment of new leagues have found. Now, that observation blood pressure remained about 20 points be-
management to continue and to expand could open an innovative approach to treat- low that of controls, which also received the
the scientific and educational excellence ing hypertension in people. hormone. When the researchers restored T
of Arecibo Observatory,” says Robert Kerr, Derived from buckwheat, 2-HOBA stands cells to the modified rodents, however, their on March 1, 2018
a former Arecibo director. But, he adds, out because of the way it seems to work—by blood pressure surged. That result “was a ma-
“I am disappointed by the tragic and ill- influencing immune cells. “The immune sys- jor finding that triggered the explosion of in-
conceived divestment by NSF.” Herbert tem is an unexpected but important player terest in the field,” says nephrologist Thomas
Carlson, a space scientist at Utah State in hypertension,” says vascular biologist Coffman of the Duke-National University of
University in Logan who uses Arecibo to Tomasz Guzik of the University of Glasgow Singapore Medical School.
study the ionosphere, is optimistic that in the United Kingdom. Scientists now sus- In 2011, cardiovascular biologist Ernesto
UCF will make the telescope widely avail- pect that immune cells collude with long- Schiffrin of McGill University in Montreal,
able for science: “I believe it is a good thing recognized culprits such as stress and dietary Canada, and colleagues took the opposite
for the observatory.” salt to drive up blood pressure. Safety tests tack. They infused immune-suppressing
NSF views the agreement with UCF as a of 2-HOBA in people are already underway, regulatory T cells into hypertensive mice and
possible blueprint for efforts to find alter- and Harrison, who holds a patent on its reported that the cells reined in blood pres-
native funding for other aging telescopes, use for hypertension, hopes to launch a full sure and reduced the amount of blood ves-
Green says (Science, 11 November 2016, clinical trial, which might lead to a new class sel damage the animals suffered. “The data,
p. 693). In particular, a review commit- of treatments that work by restraining the at least in animal models, are compelling
tee in 2012 recommended that the agency immune system. that the immune system is involved in hyper-
ramp down its funding for another large More than 1 billion people worldwide have tension,” Coffman says. Some human studies
radio dish, the 100-meter Green Bank Tele- high blood pressure, which promotes heart also indicate a connection. In a 2006 paper,
scope in West Virginia. “We’re hoping that attacks, strokes, kidney damage, dementia, for example, researchers revealed that blood
[the Arecibo agreement] will give us and and other ailments. Current drugs include pressure declined by more than 10% after pa-
the community confidence that as other diuretics that reduce the amount of water in tients with psoriasis or rheumatoid arthritis PHOTO: ISTOCK.COM/SEZERYADIGAR
divestment efforts proceed, we can reach the body and b blockers that decrease how began taking an immune-inhibiting drug.
similar outcomes,” Green says. j much blood the heart pumps. Yet about 15% Researchers doubt that immune cells
to 20% of patients don’t improve. “Clearly, instigate hypertension. “The immune sys-
With additional reporting by Adrian Cho. we are not managing the condition appropri- tem probably kicks in after some of the

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