Morehouse established its Space Medicine and Life Sciences Research Center in 1995 to research the effects of microgravity on the human body. Funded by NASA, the center focuses on how space travel can alter cardiovascular, muscle, brain and bone tissues. In a bioreactor, the basic biological building blocks grow in unusual patterns because the device creates conditions whereby they behave as if they were suspended in weightlessness, according to the Morehouse researchers. On a human level, the lack of gravity can alter the biochemistry of astronauts and threaten their well being. For example, when people return from zero gravity to Earth, their blood pressure can drop precipitously because of physical changes in their blood vessels.
Astronauts also experience bone loss, muscle atrophy and other physiological alterations.
By studying cells in the bioreactor, Morehouse medical researchers hope to generate data that will lead to medical strategies to counteract the effects of weightlessness. What we are doing here is providing the kind of data NASA managers need. They can't do all they research they need to do in space. There aren't enough shuttle flights going up. Bioreactors consist of small, customized thick glass containers.