An EKU chemistry professor's NASA-funded research experiment in protein crystallization eventually could lead to more effective treatment of various diseases.

NASA awarded Dr. Lori Wilson a $377,000 grant in 1997 to develop protein solutions that could be carried in a "microgravity test tube" aboard a yet-to-be-determined space shuttle flight in 2002 or 2003. Protein crystals have been grown aboard space shuttles since 1986; Wilson hopes her experiment, a largely automated process that can be started and stopped by the astronauts, will shed new light on why higher-quality crystals with fewer defects can be produced in microgravity.

Crystallization allows researchers to examine the molecular structure of proteins, but requires near perfect crystals, according to Wilson. On earth, crystals grow in clumps, but a single crystal is needed in order to analyze the structure.

"The first step in rational drug design is to crystallize a protein, then solve its structure by x-ray defraction," she explained "but some proteins are difficult to crystallize. If we can understand why microgravity gives us an improvement in the crystals, perhaps we can change what we're doing on the ground."

Wilson received the grant while a faculty member at East Tennessee State University. Her project attracted the attention of U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, a physician who also chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees funding for NASA.

"This is basic science that translated into drugs for the treatment of such things as brain cancer," Frist told the Johnson City Press in 1998. "To be able to develop certain protein crystals and target them in a specific way, we could have the potential to cure cancer."

One of the proteins in the experiment - human serum transferrin - transfers iron in the blood to the cells and has been shown to stimulate prostate cancer cells and has been used as a delivery agent for drugs to the brain. "That's just one protein, though," Wilson cautioned. "You can see how that could lead to many drugs."

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, during the 1998 visit to the ETSU campus with Frist, said Wilson's findings also could prove beneficial in any future exploration of Mars.

"We have to figure out how we can live and work safely in space," Goldin told the Press. "To do that, one area we will be looking at is biotechnology like that Dr. Wilson is working on."

Wilson, who joined the EKU faculty as an associate professor of chemistry last fall after
seven years at ETSU, first became interested in space-related research during postdoctoral studies at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "I learned that NASA was involved in more than just exploration of space," she said, "that they also are interested in using microgravity as another variable in scientific research."

Now she passes along that interest to her own undergraduate students at EKU.

"This will allow our undergraduates to be involved in important research," said Wilson, who will take students to the shuttle launch and landing to help with the loading and unloading of the project. Students also will assist Wilson in laboratory analysis back on the Richmond campus.

This is Wilson's second grant from NASA. Previously, she was awarded a $108,000 grant from NASA'S Joint Venture for Research to develop a multi-chambered diffusion unit for crystallization kinetics - a cylindrical device that removes convected flows from Earth's gravity.

Wilson teaches Introductory Chemistry at EKU as well as Instrumental Analysis and Forensics Microscopy.

Contact: Wilson at 859-622-3089.