(9 November 2016) Useful indications to prevent and treat the onset of diseases related to aging and physical inactivity on Earth will derive from space and absence of gravity, or the opposite – hypergravity. In order to perform these experiments, the European Space Agency selected the proposal by the Italian team coordinated by Debora Angeloni, a researcher from the Institute of Life Sciences at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa for the 2016 campaign, “Spin your thesis!”. The team “HypE” (or “Hypergravity effect on Endothelium”) coordinated by the Sant’Anna School, has been chosen to conduct experiments in hypergravity within the “Large diameter centrifuge”, a “centrifuge” measuring 8 metres in diameter that allows for a gravity greater than Earth’s, installed in the European Centre for Space Research and Technology (Estec) in Noordwijk, Holland. For “Spin your thesis!” 2016, Italy has had great success. Of the three groups, two come from Italy. In addition to the team “HypE” the European Space Agency has chosen, in the context of this campaign, “PlanOx”, composed of Ph.D students from the BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, the CMBR Centre of the Italian Institute technology based in Pontedera coordinated by Gianni Ciofani, now at the Turin Polytechnic, and a professor at the University of Pisa. It is a great opportunity for the team directed by Debora Angeloni and composed of Chiara de Cesari and Olga Pyankova, both PhD students in Translational Medicine of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna; Matteo Vezza a student of the Univeristy of Pisa and of laboratory directed by Debora Angeloni. “Gravity has strongly contributed to shaping life as we know it today. Studying the biological effects of the absence of gravity is beneficial to obtaining precious information on the structural organization and function of living organizing and to open unexpected windows on the limits between health and disease. Microgravity however, only represents one side of the coin. The other is represented by hypergravity. We can expect the discovery of useful markers of inflammation and degeneration to prevent and treat disorders that often accompany astronauts returning from space as well as the population on earth during the process of aging” comments Angeloni”. (PO/red)
