As residents enter the International Space Station for the first time, the challenges to human health and safety are evident for astronauts and cosmonauts who may be exposed to the ionizing and ultraviolet radiation of outer space. Blood sugar and cholesterol levels could also be monitored without taking a blood sample. Ansari's laboratory is in the process of designing and constructing space-vision goggles. The goggles include a compact device based on his technique of DLS and other optical techniques and sensors supported by an internet web system to monitor an astronaut's health during long-term space travel. Cataracts, AMD and Alzheimer's disease primarily affect people throughout the world over the age of 60.
Cataracts are the gradual formation of protein clumps that eventually cloud the lens of the eye.
Protein deposits called amyloids are present in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. With the adaptation of DLS techniques, physicians will be able to look into the lens, cornea, aqueous, retina and vitreous of an eye for amyloid protein. Detecting the disease in its earlier stages may lead to treatment with anti-inflammatories, antioxidants or hormone replacement therapies. It has enhanced opthalmologists' ability to trace the beginning stages of eye disease painlessly, non-invasively and quantitatively in humans. For more information, contact Laurel Stauber at NASA Glenn Research Center.