The NASA Space Biology Program Selects 15 Grant Proposals for Awards

NASA’s Space Biology Program has selected 15 grant proposals to award across three appendices released under the Research Opportunities and Space Biology (ROSBio) Omnibus. Thirteen of the awards will simulate microgravity on the ground to characterize how biological systems respond to changes in gravity. One of the remaining two awards will use parabolic flights to characterize how cells in mammals respond to transient changes in gravity and the other will use an Antarctic balloon flight to expose bacteria to the radiation environment of the stratosphere, which shares similarities to the radiation environment of space. These NASA-sponsored studies will help grow the collective knowledge to help researchers solve some of the challenges confronting human exploration of space, as well as translate to new biological tools or applications on Earth.
 
Awards will be made to investigators from 14 institutions in 13 states. Six of these awards are to principal investigators who are new to the Space Biology Program. When fully implemented, a total of ~$4.5 million will be awarded during a two- to three-year period. These projects will use bacteria, fungi, mammalian tissue culture, small invertebrates, and plants to study how spaceflight-like conditions effect biological systems in support of enabling exploration and pioneering scientific discovery.
 
The full announcement of awards can be found at:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-nasa-space-biology-program-selects-15-grant-proposals-for-awards
 
The Space Biology Program is managed by the Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications Division in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington D.C.