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the dragon spacecraft launching soon to

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the international space station is

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carrying supplies for the crew and a

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number of science experiments among them

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is a new hardware for new research

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that's focusing on crystallization of

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the cystic fibrosis protein which could

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help researchers develop better drugs to

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treat the disease joining us now we have

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principal investigator dr stephen aller

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of the advancing membrane protein

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crystallization by using microgravity

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experiment so very briefly can you just

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describe for us what causes cystic

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fibrosis and also how it is treated

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cystic fibrosis is

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a point mutation in a protein and 90

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percent of the patients in which the

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protein is misfolded

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and none of it gets to the cell surface

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where it's required to function

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its normal function is a chloride

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channel and allows plenty of water to uh

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to flow and

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lubricate the lungs and without this

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protein called cftr uh people develop

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very sticky mucous lungs uh and that

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results in infection and so we're trying

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to study the three-dimensional structure

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of this protein in order to understand

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how it works and how to correct the

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defects

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so why the focus on crystallizing the

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proteins for such treatment

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so a lot of drug screens that companies

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do are basically brute force and looking

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for an effect and they don't emphasize

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the mechanism by which drugs work and

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one of the important ways to learn by

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which drugs work is to see the

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the three-dimensional shape of the

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targets that the drugs bind to

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and we don't have any idea about the the

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atomic structure of this cystic fibrosis

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protein we have one structure of very

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close relative of it

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but right now we don't have any idea

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what the protein looks like particularly

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in the region where it is misfolded so

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if we could determine the shape of that

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to an atomic detail we can learn how to

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better correct the defect

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much more specifically and potent

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potently to get better drugs

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so can you explain to me also how is

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this

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experiment going to be working on orbit

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okay so the the general idea that we're

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testing is similar to other projects

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which are going up

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is that in space when you don't have

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gravity we don't have any convection

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forces these are like forces of wind

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which are in in the fluids and they're

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actually very strong forces that are

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banging around all the molecules that

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happens here in the ground and it makes

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it really challenging for protein

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crystals to form

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if you put a crystallization experiment

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in space with specialized hardware you

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remove this convection force and it

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gives the protein crystals much more

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time to form really really perfect

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lattices and for difficult proteins like

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the cystic fibrosis protein and two

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other relatives that we're studying

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they don't form very well ordered

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crystals on the ground and we're

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exploring the hypothesis that this

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microgravity will allow much much more

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perfect crystals to form and give us a

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lot more detailed information about the

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proteins so growing these crystals in

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space is better than on the ground and

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so we're going to be able to take

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advantage of that microgravity

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environment and aboard the international

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space station to conduct this experiment

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that's very good can you also tell me

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how long is it going to take to grow

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these crystals and when do they come

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home

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uh mission is scheduled to come back in

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july okay so that's several months and

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we need that extra time

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because the process is much slower

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so up until you know we had the space

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shuttle program which was limited to a

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very short duration a lot of this wasn't

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possible

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but because we have the resources on the

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space station it's up there for many

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many months we now have capabilities to

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allow experiments to go for much longer

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and hopefully capture crystallization

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processes which are which are much

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slower

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to happen

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can you tell me also what will become of

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these crystals during this flight once

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they are returned

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well hopefully when they are when

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they're they'll be returned in

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specialized hardware and and recovered

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uh they splashed down in the ocean and

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recovered by a special team uh they're

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flown in a uh uh um a jet

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that

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handles them very carefully

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and then my group will one by one

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examine the crystals that are in them

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and protect them from a process called

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cryo protection to protect them from

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damage during freezing

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and then we will ship them to u.s

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synchrotrons for data collection and

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synchrotrons are very critical for our

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proteins because they offer us very high

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intensity x-ray beam

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and much better data quality than what

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is possible with a lower intensity home

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source

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so we will collect the data from the

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crystals and in some cases compare them

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to earth-grown crystals uh in one case

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where we have enough protein to do that

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and we will know with high confidence

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just the effects of microgravity on

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these specific proteins

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best of luck to you and thanks again for