Hundreds of worms are traveling to ISS to unravel muscle loss in space
Swindon [United Kingdom], September 12 (ANI): The United Kingdom Space Agency is sending hundreds of Caenorhabditis elegans to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year as part of its Molecular Muscle Experiment.
ANI
Sep 12, 2018 11:09 IST
Swindon [United Kingdom], September 12 (ANI): The United Kingdom Space Agency is sending hundreds of Caenorhabditis elegans to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year as part of its Molecular Muscle Experiment.
Sending the colony of worms is expected to help the scientists learn about muscle loss in space and in turn, could lead to new treatments to muscle conditions on Earth, the agency announced through an official blog.
Astronauts lose up to 40 percent of their muscle after just six months in space. Worms are both structurally and metabolically highly similar to humans and thus, provide a lot of practical advantages for experimentation.
C elegans are small, quick to grow, cheap and easy to maintain, making them good to work with. (ANI)
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