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>> The work that flight engineer
Mike Hopkins has been doing

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today from the BP Reg
experiment is an example of some

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of the human life sciences
research that's underway

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on orbit.

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All of it is designed to
find out as much as possible

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about how living in microgravity
affects the human body.

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Now, that sort of
work has been going

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on in space flight
for decades now.

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This morning we have a report to
bring some perspective to that.

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Here's Lori Meggs at the space
station's Payload Operations

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Integration Center at the
Marshall Space Flight Center

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in Huntsville, Alabama.

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>> Dating back to Apollo
it's been documented

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that astronauts' immune
systems become suppressed

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in microgravity.

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A study is looking
at why that happens.

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It's called "T-Cell
Activation in Aging."

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And the study's principal
investigator --

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it's a personal cause for her --

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Millie Hughes-Fulford
who flew aboard STS-40,

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Space Lab's first
mission dedicated

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to biomedical research.

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>> We're looking at the
immunosuppression in astronauts.

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We're using very complicated
bioinformatics in order to look

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at all 30,000 genes involved.

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And from there, we
are finding the way

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to modulate the immune system.

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Not only for people in
space flight but also

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for people on the ground.

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For instance, older people

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as they age they have
an immunosuppression.

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Something like 70%
of the people in ICU

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that die have had pneumonia.

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We're also looking at ways
to modulate the immune system

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for autoimmune disease.

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That would be when it's
turned on too high.

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So, the hope for our research
is that we're going to be able

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to pinpoint the target areas

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that might make a good
pharmaceutical target.

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My experiment -- the first one
flew on station some time ago.

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We published the paper
2012 about the experiment,

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and this is the next
experiment following.

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>> So, what did you
find in the first study?

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>> In the first study
we found some

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of the very early
signaling events that change

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in the immune system
in microgravity.

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In this study, we're
carrying it one step further.

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We're able to look at
microRNA where we will be able

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to have brand new
pharmaceutical targets.

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>> Why does this
interest you, personally?

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>> I'm interested in the
immune system because it's key

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to health and it's
something that's very dramatic

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in the astronauts and so
it's something easy to study.

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Because in microgravity we have
removed a variable -- gravity.

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And so, like any mathematical
problem that you take a variable

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out many times you come
out with a new solution.

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So, I'm using microgravity
as a tool to look

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at how the immune system is
working and how the modulate is.

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>> And that's why a
space station is ideal?

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>> That's why a space
station is needed.

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>> Tell me about your
personal experience

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as a mission specialist
and how that has carried

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over into the research
that you're interested in.

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>> In 1991, I was a
crew member on STS-40.

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We had 26 experiments.

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And of those experiments
one of them was --

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the PI was Augusto Cogoli

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where he was looking
at the immune system.

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I became very interested

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in how the immune system was
working, got to know Augusto.

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He called me later.

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He knew I was working with
RNA and he wanted to know

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if I'd collaborate with him.

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And that's how we
started working together

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on the immune system.

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>> And that will
do it for us here

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at the Payload Operations
Integration Center

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in Huntsville.