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Sunita tests biological lab in space

The ability to monitor micro-organisms is important for the health of astronauts

— PHOTO: AP

Sunita Williams in this file photo.

Houston: Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams tested a miniature biological laboratory for the first time onboard the International Space Station.

The lab called LOCAD-PTS (short for Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System), the mini-lab detects the presence of bacteria or fungi on the surfaces of a spacecraft far more rapidly than standard methods of culturing.

The LOCAD-PTS was launched December 9, 2006, aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery. It was not used until March 31, 2007, when it was scheduled to be opened. At that time, Ms. Williams assembled the LOCAD-PTS components. She took several readings. The first two were to verify that the instrument was working properly. Then, she took readings of various objects around the cabin that should contain bacteria.

The instrument showed a strong positive reading that, indeed, bacteria were being detected. Next, she took samples of ultra-clean water, which showed negative readings. Next, she chose a wall panel in ISS Node one to test using both LOCAD-PTS and, for comparison, a standard culturing method. For the standard method, she pressed a layer of solid gel growth medium (rather like agar) to the panel for a few seconds, replaced it securely in its packaging, and then set it aside to incubate for a few days.

Then she took a dry swab, rather like a high-tech Q-tip, from LOCAD-PTS and rubbed it on the panel next to the same area. Flushing ultraclean water through the swab converted the sample to liquid form, and a few drops were dispensed into the hand-held LOCAD-PTS instrument.

``The cleaner the sample, the longer the analysis takes,'' says experiment's principal investigator Wainwright. ``Because this site was pretty clean, it took about 12 minutes, but dirty samples can take as little as a couple of minutes.'' It was during the wait that Ms. Williams must have noted the time.

Though it was 10:20 PM Central Daylight Time at Marshall in Huntsville, Alabama, where all the LOCAD-PTS scientists were anxiously watching television monitors, it was actually past midnight on April 1, Greenwich Mean Time, the time zone used by ISS.

Ms. Williams said, ``Ah, this last set of readings for LOCAD-PTS looks a bit strange,'' a scientist recalls. ``After a pause of about five seconds, she exclaimed, `Happy April Fools' Day! The numbers are just fine!' She definitely got me!'' he laughs.

``The ability to monitor micro-organisms would be especially important on long space voyages, not only to check the health of astronauts but also to monitor electronics and structural materials, which can be corroded or otherwise damaged by certain fungi and bacteria,'' says Mr. Wainwright. The LOCAD-PTS is designed so that ``astronauts can do the analysis onboard with no need to return samples to laboratories on Earth.'' Over the next few months, LOCAD-PTS and standard culture methods will be used to investigate different parts of ISS. — PTI

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