DNA Medicine Institute Completes Reduced-Gravity Experiments on its NASA-Funded rHEALTH Sensor
Cambridge, MA, December 14, 2010 – The DNA Medicine Institute (DMI) has successfully completed reduced-gravity testing of its groundbreaking rHEALTH® sensor as part of NASA’s 2010 Facilitated Access to the Space Environment for Technology (FAST) program in Houston, Texas. The rHEALTH platform is engineered to extract a comprehensive panel of clinical diagnostics from a single drop of blood, serving as a compact, universal medical laboratory.
Originally developed to support astronaut health monitoring in microgravity and deep-space missions, the rHEALTH sensor also holds powerful terrestrial applications — enabling real-time diagnostics at a patient’s bedside, in physicians’ offices, or in emergency and austere field conditions where traditional laboratory infrastructure is unavailable.
The technology was one of 17 selected demonstration projects across 10 states to undergo reduced-gravity evaluation. During testing, the platform was exposed to zero-gravity, lunar gravity, and hyper-gravity (1.8g) conditions for up to 25 seconds per parabola aboard a Boeing 727 performing repeated parabolic flight maneuvers.
A joint team from DMI and NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC) successfully executed system operations, including sample loading, reagent mixing, and detection, with flawless device performance across all lunar and zero-gravity flights.
“The reduced-gravity trials conducted through NASA’s FAST program provided a critical validation milestone for the rHEALTH technology,” said Eugene Y. Chan, M.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of the DNA Medicine Institute. “These tests not only showed reliable function under extreme g-force variation, but also demonstrated the robustness required for high-stakes clinical care — whether on the International Space Station or in emergency medicine environments here on Earth.”
The FAST program enables NASA to evaluate whether cutting-edge biomedical and engineering technologies can perform reliably in reduced-gravity environments such as those of the Moon, Mars, or low-Earth orbit. These early demonstrations reduce deployment risk and help accelerate the transition of breakthrough technologies into operational spaceflight systems and aerospace healthcare applications.
For details on the 17 selected FAST projects and partner organizations, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ipp/innovation_incubator/FAST/index.html
For additional information on rHEALTH and space medicine initiatives, visit:
http://www.dnamedinstitute.com/space-medicine/