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and we have a special guest with us here

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in mission control houston today uh

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two-time long duration space flier peggy

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whitson uh as mentioned an accomplished

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biochemist in her own right with a

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degree from rice university in

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biochemistry

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peggy welcome

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it's great to be here today we're glad

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to have you on space station live and

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and the reason we're talking with you

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today is we're talking about micro

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encapsulation

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uh and i'm gonna let you explain it but

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the reason we're talking about micro

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encapsulation is because uh we did a

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countdown of the ten top research uh

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results and experiments on the

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international space stations we're

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getting ready to recognize the 15-year

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anniversary of the first element launch

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you were one of the early space station

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crew members on expedition 5

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and you worked with the micro

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encapsulation experiment on orbit tell

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us a little bit about it well actually

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the micro encapsulation experiment on

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orbit

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was actually from a crew member

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perspective relatively simple we just

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put in these canisters and activated

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them and what we were doing is building

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these little basically the bubbles

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that can be used in

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uh technology as either

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delivering drugs and and various

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different techniques for uh application

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here on the earth but we were just

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trying to build the bubbles and

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understand what what makes them uh

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how to make them the best way and most

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effectively and so we were using the

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lack of gravity as our tool to see

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what other variables can influence how

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these

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little capsules can be made here on

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earth which is great for us because you

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know up on orbit we can we can test

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these things out and find out all the

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nuances of the different things that

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influence making these capsules

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and what's really i know it's been since

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expedition five and that seems like a

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long time ago but that's actually kind

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of how research runs especially research

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that involves human beings uh you know

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it's taken this many years to get uh

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these capsules to the point where we're

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going to actually try and test them here

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on earth to carry

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in some cases they're going to carry

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markers that can be used then to

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by the doctors to visualize where the

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cancers might be located so the the

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capsules will go and know how to attack

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and and attach to a particular type of

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cancer

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and then the doctors can

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visualize that cancer better because the

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bubbles inside will have a little

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fluorescent or marker beads that can

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actually be visualized and the doctors

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can attack it directly by using

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ultrasound to visualize it and inject

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things it's also a plan for future uses

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where you would actually

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put drugs inside those little bubbles

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and they would then attack the cancers

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directly so it's really exciting that we

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we're getting to that phase where we're

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taking something that we we tested out

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on orbit found out how to optimize

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making these little capsules on the

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ground by taking out gravity as a

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variable and now we can we can test

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something in human beings that hopefully

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will have a future for us

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in helping to cure cancers or not so

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much cure cancers but to help us fight

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more effectively cancers as they as they

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grow in our bodies well and that could

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also as i understand the way they're

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hoping to use this in drug delivery help

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make cancer treatments a lot less hard

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to deal with for the patient right now

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you pretty much pollute the entire body

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with the anti-cancer chemicals this

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allows you to pollute just the area that

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you really want to target yes that's a

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very good point so it'll be very much a

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targeted drug delivery mechanism so it's

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very exciting but human research uh does

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take years especially from the concept

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the idea and then to get it to where

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we're actually testing it uh in in human

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beings it does take years and that's

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that's standard here on the ground when

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we're doing research it takes that long

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but it's very exciting that something

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that began on the international space

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station has come this far

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well

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so tell us

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as a biochemist are there any other

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experiments that are particularly

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uh

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interesting in your view

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that have come out of space station

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research

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oh well

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i i have lots of favorites that i've

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i've worked on over the years

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doing different

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research but the ones that are most

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appealing to me

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are the ones where the crew member gets

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to interact the most you know we do a

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lot of crystallization but mostly that's

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activating and starting an experiment

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and zero gravity is the variable that

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causes these things to happen

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independent of the crew member so from a

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crew member perspective the ones that

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are most interesting are the ones where

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we get to actually be involved and be a

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part of the experiment

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one of the

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more interesting ones for me again that

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illustrates

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why we do research in an environment

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like the space station was an in-space

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experiment where we were looking at this

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um colloidal suspension of iron

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particles in a magnetic field

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and one day i turned the magnetic field

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or the

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magnetic electromagnetic field and set

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it at the wrong setting because my eyes

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were getting a little old and i missed

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the decimal point

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instead of 20 hertz it was two

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just two decimal zero

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and we saw a very different response to

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what they'd seen on the ground

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and so once we finished up the

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experiments at 20 hertz we went back and

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repeated them at 2 hertz

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so the investigators would have this

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whole new data set that we just by

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accident found on orbit and a lot of

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times research in the laboratory here on

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the ground the most interesting research

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is i wonder why that happened

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and you go and try and figure out why

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did that happen well serendipity was

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always my best friend when i was doing

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any kind of a research for

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my college degree yeah and you know mike

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hopkins was working with the in space

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experiment yesterday uh he had us some

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extra time and he was able to pull that

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together and and do some work in the

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microgravity glove lock so it's

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obviously still a favorite up there

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because you can see things happening

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right yeah and it's a lot of fun because

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the crew members are very involved and

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they have to set up things and you get

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to watch

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what's happening at the time and so from

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a crew member perspective those are the

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fun ones to do i liked enjoyed doing the

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ultrasound we were using developing

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ultrasound technology

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and distance telemedicine techniques to

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utilize this technology for remote

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medicine onboard the space station but

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obviously that that could apply here on

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earth in remote rural locations where

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you might not have an expert

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ultrasound technologist but you could do

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some remote guidance from somewhere else

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and have the experts look at the data

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and tell you you know what what might be

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the problem so

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all of this is great application for us

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going on beyond

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you know low earth orbit and doing

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exploration in the future but it's

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really neat that it actually does apply

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here on the ground as well

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definitely we're looking at the benefits

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for humanity from the international

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space station i want to thank you peggy

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whitson for coming to visit with us

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today we appreciate you great taking

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time out of your day

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and to share your expertise with

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research and your experience onboard the

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international space station no problem