In Greek mythology, Pandora’s Box releases disease and other miseries into the world. But in real life, a very different type of box uses microgravity to do the opposite: fight disease back on Earth.
University of Toledo biochemist Timothy Mueser’s “Toledo Crystallization Box” utilizes the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS) to change the physical form of proteins involved in human disease into large crystals. Such crystals can provide new data about the physical structure of proteins that can offer insights into their function—information essential to developing new pharmaceutical drugs to help patients.
