UCLA researchers receive grant for cell, space study

By David Zisser
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]

UCLA researches are studying the cell, the smallest unit of
life, in hopes of someday developing space suits that will protect
astronauts from radiation exposure.

The researchers, from various departments at UCLA, received a
NASA grant of $3 million per year for up to ten years to start the
new Institute for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration, where they will
do their research.

“I was excited to learn that we were successful in
obtaining the highly competitive NASA center,” said Vijay
Dhir, dean of the engineering department.

“It is a recognition of the highest quality research we
are doing and of the excellent faculty we have,” Dhir
said.

The CMISE researchers will combine biology with modern
scientific technology by applying their knowledge of the biological
cell to space exploration.

“Basically, we want to learn why nature can produce such
an efficient system (a single cell) in such a small space,”
said Professor Chih-Ming Ho, director of CMISE.

“Then we can expand this very small space to a very large
space,” he said.

The CMISE researchers will first investigate how a cell stores
and processes information. They hope to apply what they learn to
improve the health monitoring of astronauts and develop
radiation-resistant suits that could someday make human travel to
Mars possible. They also hope to make space shuttle energy
resources more efficient.

Ho said the single cell is a logical starting point for CMISE
research. He described the cell as a complex factory that produces
molecules with specific functions in a tiny space.

The idea, Ho said, is to make the whole space engineering system
store and process information more like nature.

Many of CMISE’s developments will take place in sterile
clean-room environments, an important resource provided by the
California NanoSystems Institute, a joint enterprise of UCLA and UC
Santa Barbara.

The goal of the project is to to forge a relationship between
the academic community and NASA, according to Michael Reischman,
director of university programs at NASA.

Reischman added that the focus on educating young engineers and
scientists is an important aspect of the program, given
NASA’s “man-power problem,” its shortage of
trained aerospace scientists.

A panel of scientists and engineers from government, industry
and academia from universities across the country, chose CMISE from
12 other proposals based on several criteria.

The evaluating criteria included the quality of the proposed
research and education plan, quality of the faculty, relevance of
proposed work, ability to manage such work and potential to grow
into a self-sustaining program.

The grant money will come from the Computing, Information, and
Communications Technology Program at the NASA AMES Research Center,
which will oversee the day-to-day management of CMISE.

“We are anticipating a close relationship,” said
Eugene Tu, the program manager of CICT. “AMES has expertise
in the areas of biotechnology, information technology and
nanotechnology.”

The fusion of these three areas, Tu said, will be important in
solving some of NASA’s current problems.

The CMISE faculty includes researchers who are leaders in
various fields such as biological sciences and engineering.

Of the 15 faculty members involved, two are Nobel laureates and
three are “academy members,” a top science honor,
according to Ho.

“These faculty members have track records of turning
scientific dreams into reality,” Ho said.

If some of the dreams of CMISE sound far-fetched, that’s
fine with Ho.

“We believe only the crazy ideas are interesting,”
Ho said.