JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A little bit of Jacksonville is heading to space.
Experiments from research at Mayo Clinic are going to be practiced during NASA’s 33rd SpaceX commercial resupply mission in space, which is scheduled to launch early Sunday morning.
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A Jacksonville doctor is behind it all.
The research through Mayo Clinic is going to be a part of NASA’s mission to explore new therapies for bone loss.
Dr. Abba Zubair is leading the effort that is going to happen in space.
His experiments will be performed to explore how bone-forming stem cells behave in microgravity.
Zubair hopes to form and develop treatments for diseases that cause bone loss, like osteoporosis.
“We are testing a compound that we think can block the bone mass or at least slow it down,” Zubair said. “If we are successful, this can have an impact on us as well in conditions that are associated with bone loss.”
As a part of this NASA mission, there is also a focus on improving astronaut health.
That is why NASA turned to Zubair for his perspective.
Zubair said astronauts lose considerable bone density while they are in space for those long periods of time.
“They lose about one percent of their bone mass every month,” he said. “This study really focuses on bone loss and microgravity condition at the International Space Station.
Zubair is a physician, scientist and dean of the medical school at Mayo Clinic. He started this specific research in 2017.
He said his work on this kind of platform is an honor for him.
Zubair has been fascinated with space since he was a young boy growing up in Nigeria.
“Having grown up in Africa, sometimes we did not have electricity,” Zubair said. “But then the stars became much brighter. You can look at them and wonder what is out there. It is a dream come true. Knowing what we are doing will have an impact not only on astronaut health, but it will have an impact on real people with conditions on earth. Gravity does have a huge impact on how our body develops and behaves. So, we need to understand that and this is one of the first steps.”
Zubair is going to stay here on earth. He is not going into space. But two astronauts are.
Zubair helped train them on the experiments that are going to be happening.
The rocket launch is scheduled for 2:45 a.m. Sunday morning,
Zubair said those astronauts are expected to be at the International Space Station for about a month.