Blood Testing Goes Orbital

A tiny bubble of metal floating in the void, the International Space Station is an engineering marvel designed to keep humans alive in profoundly inhospitable conditions. But life in space, with zero gravity and higher exposure to cosmic radiation, poses serious health risks—including dangerous blood clots.

Now, a U research team is taking their work to the final frontier. Matthew Rondina BS’98 MD’03 MS’12, professor of internal medicine and pathology at U of U Health, and Hansjorg Schwertz MOH’19, physician at Billings Clinic and adjunct assistant professor at the U, launched blood cells to the ISS last November to study how spaceflight affects clotting.

“As the duration of time that astronauts spend in space increases, we believe the risk of blood clots likely continues to accumulate,” says Rondina. In the isolated environment of a space station, clots are especially dangerous. “You don’t want to have astronauts developing any occlusive thrombi [blood clots] up in space,” adds Schwertz. “It requires a lot of logistics and treatment.”

The team is examining platelets—cells involved in blood clotting—and megakaryocytes, bone marrow cells that produce platelets. While in orbit, NASA astronauts will conduct experiments to show how space exposure changes these cells’ gene activity, proteins, and functionality.

The research could improve health care both in space and on Earth. “This may allow us to identify new genes and pathways that regulate platelet production and clotting,” explains Rondina. “We think a lot of those pathways likely have relevance to diseases that occur in normal gravity conditions.” The findings could also provide insights into immune disorders, since platelets play a key role in immune system regulation.