NASA Shared Bio Samples From International Space Station With Russia - Research Director
US space agency NASA has shared with Russia biological samples brought back from the International Space Station, as part of their research collaboration, NASA's space life research director Craig Kundrot told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th December, 2018) US space agency NASA has shared with Russia biological samples brought back from the International Space Station, as part of their research collaboration, NASA's space life research director Craig Kundrot told Sputnik.
"We've had a little bit of sample-sharing with the Russian side. We would like to do a lot more. That's an example where we are collaborating a little bit but would like to do a lot more," Kundrot said.
Speaking about the samples, the senior NASA executive said they are typically mice flown to the orbital outpost for astronomers to look at a certain aspect of their behavior, biochemistry or physiology.
"It's quite common for there to be one investigation that sets up what the experimental conditions are ... After the mission the rest of the mouse body is available for inspection by other investigators ... That's what we call a bio specimen sharing program," he said.
Kundrot led a NASA delegation to Moscow this week for a working group meeting with the Russian academy of Sciences' medical and biological research institute IMBP, the 37th such meeting in almost half a century.