NASA Sent Out Superbugs To International Space Station A Hope For Smarter Drugs On Earth? Learn More Here!

• comments
• 
• 

An antibiotic-resistant superbug was just introduced on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Sunday, Feb 19. The astronauts on the International Space Station will study the bug to come up with a potential antibiotic against it.

Lead researcher Dr. Anita Goel assured that astronauts will certainly not come directly in contact with the bacteria, CNN reported. In fact, this is not the first time of NASA to transport bacteria or superbugs on the station.

The superbugs were transported with three levels of a vessel and securely wrapped up. It includes a convenient environment that was shielded from quick depressurization and discomfort of traveling on a rocket to the station.

This is not a hint of a threatening apocalypse. It is instead to better understand how MRSA bacteria transform into antibiotic-resistant microorganisms in a zero-gravity environment in association with NASA.

Goel is a medical doctor and a physicist, who is also a chairwoman and CEO of her own lab and company, Nanobiosym. She is expecting that this study will provide a helpful knowledge to discover an effective superbugs' killer.

According to CDC, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is a bacteria resistant to the antibiotic methicillin and many others. It can cause different health problems, such as sepsis, pneumonia and, skin and bloodstream contagions.

"We are excited to put MRSA on the International Space Station and investigate the effects of microgravity on the growth and mutation patterns of these bugs," Goel said. She theorized that zero-gravity will hasten the mutation methods, which could help to a fundamental creation of smarter drugs on Earth.

Goel is curious to perceive the alterations in the gene expression patterns of these bacteria. The space station is basically a rotating lab where hundreds of tests are carried out daily.

The zero gravity or microgravity surroundings have been earlier introduced to research on bacteria. The ISS itself has a microbiome of bacteria as per astronauts and a DNA was sequenced initially aboard the station in 2016.

The research has revealed that the stressful environment of the space station as zero gravity cause fungi to propagate rapidly. Goel believes that the ISS will perform the same manner for the bacteria to provide the Earth a prognostic margin on superbugs.

She is also interested in witnessing the effects of electromagnetic radiation and other unforeseen principles on the bacteria. Examining anything in space is suiting to allow fresh understanding beyond different areas, Goel said.