University of Texas Health Science Center Wins Microgravity Research Competition

Historical opportunity to perform research in space
and bring back the results to Earth to improve healthcare

The winning project of the Microgravity Research Competition is focused on the development of the science and technology for controlled, long-term drug release. This research, conducted in space, could yield important cancer treatments here on Earth.

Saturday, April 18, 2009, Art Dula of The Heinlein Prize Trust announced the winner of the Microgravity Research Competition at the awards banquet at Rice University. The competition, sponsored by The Heinlein Prize Trust, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), and the Rice Alliance gives researchers an exciting opportunity to advance their projects in the ultimate laboratory—in Low Earth Orbit in the microgravity environment of  SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. The winning team also receives a $25,000 cash award, and a trip to Cape Canaveral to see their project launched into space.

The winner of the Microgravity Research Competition is the Division of Nanomedicine of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, for a proposal on “Decoupling Diffusive Transport Phenomena in Microgravity.” In their proposal, the University of Texas Health Science Center team said, “Microgravity yields a valuable gift for scientists to study larger particles transported over microchannels… A particular advantage of having experimental data of free diffusion not affected by gravity at the microscale is the possibility to correlate these data with similar results obtained on Earth at the nanoscale.”

The winning team’s experiment will have a direct impact on the development of drug delivery systems for medical applications. Lead by Dr. Mauro Ferrari, the team is focused on the development of implantable devices for controlled, long-term drug release, important treatment means for illnesses, including cancer.

Said Dr. Ferrari, “I am delighted with this historical opportunity to perform research in space and bring back the results to Earth to improve healthcare. This experiment will allow us to refine our technologies for the release of a drug at the right time and to the right place in the body, and to bring to the clinic the vision of personalized medicine.”

“Their work has scientific implications that go far beyond just academic science,” Art Dula, of the Heinlein Prize Trust, said of the winning project.

Mauro Ferrari, PhD., Principal Investigator and Project Director, is the director of the nanomedicine division at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and president of the Alliance for NanoHealth, Houston, with a background in Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, and Medicine. His background in the field has included work with Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine in the fight against tumors and cancers, including breast cancer.

Alessandro Grattoni, Project Manager, is a senior research assistant in the nanomedicine division at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. With a background in Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Grattoni also is conducting research into implantable devices for sustained controlled drug release

Also on the team are:

Arturas Ziemys, PhD. a Post Doctoral fellow at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center with a background in Molecular Biophysics.

Daniel Fine, PhD., a Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Division of NanoMedicine, with a background in Electrical Engineering, and Nanotechnology.

Enrica De Rosa, PhD., a Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center, with a background in Chemical, Material and Production Engineering.

XueWu Liu, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

Said Dr. Ferrari of winning the award, “…it was a truly unbelievable set of events and we are so very much looking forward to honoring the legacy of the great Robert Heinlein and his wife Virginia.”

Robert A. Heinlein, renowned American author of speculative fiction, and his wife Virginia Heinlein, founder of the Heinlein Prize Trust, believed in and advocated a human future in space where, in the words of Mr. Heinlein, there is, “unlimited room, unlimited energy, unlimited wealth,” to benefit every person on Earth. The Heinlein Prize Trust continues his legacy by encouraging private space activities such as this Microgravity Research Competition.

“Hopefully other researchers will be encouraged to pursue microgravity research for projects that benefit humankind,” added Dr. Ferrari.

About The Heinlein Prize Trust

The Heinlein Prize Trust is a non-profit foundation which promotes the commercial uses of space. It provides financial prizes to commercial space entrepreneurs, enhances public awareness of commercial space, and uses space to inspire students about opportunities of the next frontier. For more information, see www.heinleinprize.com.

About SpaceX

Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers over 650, with corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

About Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) is Rice University’s flagship initiative devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, and the launch of technology companies.

Since inception, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch of more than 230 technology start-ups which have raised more than $500 million in early-stage capital.

The Rice Alliance is host to the Rice Business Plan Competition, the largest and richest business plan competition in world. Thirty-six graduate schools compete for over $700,000 in prizes each year.

Visit www.labflight.com for full information

Finalists

All Proposal Summaries

Photo Caption: Winners of the Microgravity Research Competition, Award Ceremony

L to R: Asst Prof XueWu Liu, UTHSC-H, Alessandro Grattoni, UTHSC-H (Project Manager), Dr. Arturas Ziemys, UTHSC-H, Prof. Mauro Ferrari, UTHSC-H (Principal Investigator and Project Director), Erin Spengler (SpaceX ), Dr. Dennis Stone (NASA), Dr. Neal Pellis (NASA), Art Dula, Trustee, Heinlein Prize Trust
[UTHSC-H = University of Texas Health Science Center - Houston]

The University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston, LOGO