| March 12, 2001 |
Contact: Roban
Johnson |
Macon, GA. Ñ The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) has awarded a three-year $750,000 grant to Mercer University School of Medicine to study how nutrition can modulate pancreatic endocrine function and other health concerns related to prolonged space travel. The researchers will also work with NASA to develop countermeasures to correct muscle loss during manned space flight.
Collaborating with the School of Medicine are scientists from Mercer's Southern School of Pharmacy, the NASA Nutritional Biochemistry Group and The University of Alberta Human Islet Transplant Group. Brian Tobin, associate professor of nutrition, biochemistry and pediatrics at Mercer School of Medicine, is the project's principal investigator. Mercer co-investigators include Sandra Leeper-Woodford and Peter Uchakin of the School of Medicine, and Mark Rothenberg, of the Southern School of Pharmacy.
With this grant, Mercer becomes a member of a national NSBRI research team in nutrition, physical fitness and rehabilitation. The team's overall goal is to determine the appropriate nutrition, fitness and rehabilitation measures needed as astronauts transition between Earth gravity, zero gravity and another planet's gravity.
The NSBRI is funding 86 projects that relate to space travel-health issues at 67 institutions throughout the world. Other NSBRI Nutrition, Physical Fitness and Rehabilitation team collaborators include Texas A&M University, UTMB Galveston, NASA-Ames Research Center and the NASA-Johnson Space Center.
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