Two new Canadian research projects will start running on the International Space Station in the next week, including one from the University of Waterloo.
Supplies for the project – which is being led by Richard Hughson, from the school’s faculty of applied health sciences and the new Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging – will launch on Thursday, and arrive at the station on Sunday.
Hughson previously found that scientists returning to Earth come back with stiffer arteries and a greater resistance to insulin than they had when they left the planet.
His experiment aims to identify specific molecules in astronauts’ blood that can be linked to the changes, in the hopes that knowledge can be used to help Earth-bound people experiencing similar conditions as they age.
“In space, astronauts’ bodies show aging-like changes much faster than on Earth,” Hughson said in a press release.
“For the first time, we will be able to track exactly how – and why – the body’s blood vessels change, and use these findings to potentially improve quality of life and the burden of chronic disease.”
Also launching to the ISS on Thursday will be a University of Ottawa project examining microgravity.
By examining blood and breath samples from 10 astronauts, researchers hope to learn more about anemia and how to combat the effects of physical inactivity.
