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| Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing System (MEPS) |
| SpaceHab |
| Prime: Chiaki Mukai | Principal Investigator: Dr. Dennis Morrison, NASA Johnson Space Center |
| Backup: Pedro Duque |
| Overview |
| In the future, multilayer microcapsules may hold the key to improving techniques of drug delivery during chemotherapy treatment. Researchers from the Institute for Research, Inc. in Houston, Texas, and NASA Johnson Space Center will use MEPS to produce capsules for evaluation. For many cancer patients, chemotherapy is one of the most feared parts of treatment because it can be so debilitating. With large, solid tumors, however, a special type of chemotherapy currently in use is called transcatheter chemoemobilization. In this process, approximately five percent of the "normal" dose is placed directly into the tumor through a catheter in one of the many blood vessels that serve the tumor followed by an injection of Gelfoam particles. These particles then swell to block the blood vessels in and around the tumor so that the treatment does not prematurely "wash out" of the tumor. Using this chemotherapy technique has improved the one-year survival rate of patients with nonoperable liver tumors from 18 percent to between 55 and 69 percent, and reduced undesirable side effects. A multilayer capsule not only holds a dose of an FDA-approved anti-tumor drug but also can hold a radio-trace medium. This will allow doctors to X-ray and monitor the accumulation and distribution of the capsules in the tumor to be sure that all regions of the tumor receive optimum treatment. The experiment is sponsored by NASA's Space Product Development Office of the Microgravity Research Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. |
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| History/Background |
| MEPS experiments conducted during STS-95 will study the formation of anti-tumor capsules containing two kinds of drugs. The experiment facility will automatically control fluid flows, record video of fluid interfaces as the microcapsules are formed, harvest the capsules, and use electrostatic deposition of a thin coating of an ancillary polymer. The facility will process six research runs during the mission. Each run is contained in a process chamber module that will activated by the crew, and removed and stored after each two-hour run. The data gathered during this effort will evaluate the performance of the system and advance the production of multilayer microcapsules on Earth. |
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