Space crystal experiment launches Sunday

On July 21, Gloria Borgstahl, Ph.D., a professor at the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at UNMC, will launch optimized crystallization experiments into space as she and her lab continue on their quest to better understand how manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) rids cells of superoxide.

The last space launch was eight months ago, when graduate research assistant Jahaun Azadmanesh and research technologist Will Lutz sent their first crystallization experiment to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX rockets.

This time, in order to understand why the MnSOD enzyme inactivates itself with peroxide, they are sending a mutant enzyme.

The payload, developed by Lutz, is called Perfect Crystals.

“The normal MnSOD enzyme inactivates itself 50 percent of the time, but we don’t know how or why,” Azadmanesh said. “This special mutant inactivates itself 100 percent of the time and is able to give us a much better picture of how and why this occurs.”

It is through studies of the mutant enzyme that Azadmanesh, Lutz and Dr. Borgstahl hope to understand the self-inactivation of MnSOD and its function in cancer, cardiomyopathy and neurodegeneration.

Another perk of studying crystals in space is the lack of gravity, which will allow the crystals to grow much larger than they otherwise would on Earth.

“Many parameters influence the quality of crystallization, such as diffusion rates, time and amount of enzyme present,” Azadmanesh said. “By testing and controlling for these variables, we hope to identify the parameters needed to obtain the largest and most perfect crystals that will yield the most atomic information possible.”

“These experiments with neutron crystallography and using the national laboratory on the International Space Station are exciting and combine ideas I have wanted to employ my entire career,” Dr. Borgstahl said. “The stars have aligned so far. I am extremely fortunate to have so much talent in Jahaun and Will.”