For a detailed description, visit the bioreactor web site . Within NASA, Richmond also interacts with Dr. Jeanne Becker, an associate professor at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, and with investigators in the Biotechnology Cell Science Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, home of the NASA Bioreactor. For many people, culturing cells means putting some small number into nutrient media in a dish or a tube and letting them grow. So, Richmond and Becker are using NASA Bioreactors to fool mammary cells into thinking they are in a normal environment, and thus culture them into larger assemblies whose natural growth can be studied. Two High-Aspect Ratio Vessels turn at about 12 rpm to keep breast tissue constructs suspended inside the culture media.
Syringes allow scientists to pull samples for analysis during growth sequences.
The tube in the center is a water bubbler that dehumidifies the air to prevent evaporation of the media and thus the appearance of destructive bubbles in the bioreactor. She hopes to further our understanding of the factors important in the growth and the spread of tumors. Our observations suggest there is much to learn and value to be gained from the study of their tissue-equivalent growth. Culturing of primary breast cancer cells for long periods is rarely achieved in standard tissue culture dishes. With tumor cells from 27 different breast cancer patients, Becker could get only 5 specimens to grow enough to fill the dish.