Experiment from Moffitt Cancer Center doctors set to launch to International Space Station

TAMPA, Fla. - It’s the first all-commercial crew to take flight to the International Space Station, and it's set to launch Friday from Cape Canaveral. On board will be a creation of the minds of Moffitt Cancer Center’s Dr. Patsy McDonald and Dr. Derek Duckett.

"To have our experiment on board and on this historic mission is really exciting," said McDonald.

This tiny laboratory is like a lab in a box that will be sent to space to study stress and DNA damage caused by space travel.

"Astronauts are exposed to a number of different DNA stressors during space flight, and that includes radiation, microgravity as well as physical stressors," McDonald said.  

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Once on the space station, the cells will be exposed to the stressors, but they’ve discovered that silencing a specific gene might offer the answers.

"When we delete this particular gene, or silence it, in cells, then those cells are protected against the DNA damage and effects of radiation," she said.

The lab, roughly the size of a shoebox, is self-contained and controlled from Earth over the next 10 days. As for what she expects to find?

"That the cells that are deleted for the gene show some evidence that they are protected from the harsh environment of space," McDonald said.

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The goal is to eventually develop a drug that could be used as a preventative measure for astronauts.

"A drug that would mimic the effects of this gene deletion."

McDonald said it would be a temporary deletion of the gene that could permanently reduce the risk of space travel on human health. The experiment will be hitching a ride atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Friday after several delays due to weather over the last week.