{"id":14220,"date":"2016-07-18T11:17:22","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T16:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=14220"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:28:45","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:28:45","slug":"spacemedicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=14220","title":{"rendered":"Tar Heels venture into space medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Recent
Recent graduate Diana Dayal and Carolina senior Bobby Hazel examine a mock head-down tilt test at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. (Photo courtesy Diana Dayal.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The human body\u2019s circulatory system isn\u2019t much of a mystery \u2014 when there\u2019s gravity.<\/p>\n

In outer space, body fluid doesn\u2019t circulate the way it does on Earth. Instead, it may be rushing to the head and causing all sorts of issues, including impairing astronauts\u2019 vision during and after their missions.<\/p>\n

A Carolina senior and recent graduate are now trying to figure out why.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of our study is to understand how this Vision Impairment and Intracranial Pressure syndrome works and exactly what\u2019s going on with the fluid shift,\u201d said Diana Dayal, who graduated in May with degrees in biology and economics. \u201cThis is the first study of its kind doing brain blood flow monitoring and cognitive testing together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dayal and biomedical engineering senior Bobby Hazel are spending their summer working alongside researchers from NASA, academia and industry to better understand Vision Impairment and Intracranial Pressure and how it can be prevented. The project is part of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute\u2019s Space Biomedical Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program, which provides hands-on lab opportunities for young scientists and engineers to access careers in human spaceflight.<\/p>\n

Dayal and Hazel were selected for the program by Dorit Donoviel, who serves as Deputy Chief Scientist at NSBRI. The students applied for the program separately, having never met each other at Carolina or at William G. Enloe High School High School in Raleigh where they both went.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just picked the very, very best \u2014\u00a0not only in terms of scientific background and experience but also personality and interest,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s amazing that UNC has produced such great students.\u201d<\/p>\n

During their apprenticeship, the two Tar Heels are combining their studies in biomedical engineering and biology to design human-subject tests to examine brain blood flow dynamics and neurocognitive performance in microgravity.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Earth, your circularity system \u2014 your heart, brain and everything that circulates fluid \u2014 circulates in a particular way,\u201d Hazel said. \u201cIn space, the lack of gravity changes that and all those fluids have a general shift towards the head and that has some interesting effects on the body.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is test cognitive function, look at the fluid flow to the head and the brain so we can study what sort of effect it might have. We\u2019re doing that by simulating the zero-gravity environment using a technique that is used pretty widespread through NASA research facilities called \u2018head-down tilt.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Head-down tilt is exactly what it sounds like \u2014 hanging people upside down, minus 12 degrees to simulate the effects of being in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big health issue that we\u2019re studying is based on a symptom that many of NASA astronauts have come back reporting that has been called \u2018visual impairment and intracranial pressure,\u2019\u201d Dayal said. \u201cThe thought is that the increase in the fluid shift to the head is increasing intracranial pressure \u2014we know that because NASA has tested intracranial pressure on astronauts\u00a0\u2014 and many have reported visual impairment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work is a follow-up to a larger study recently done at the German Aerospace Center. Dayal and Hazel, in collaboration with researchers at other universities and institutions around the country, are diving into the details of the study to help prevent the problem for space travelers.<\/p>\n

For Dayal, the apprenticeship combines her interests in space, medicine and public health while exposing her to new technologies and innovative work that she hopes to bring back to Carolina next fall as a student at the UNC School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere I found the perfect partnership,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the space community you\u2019re doing space medicine, but so much of the time the technologies that we\u2019re developing for the extreme environment that is space, or the International Space Station, have massive analogs on earth in remote communities that don\u2019t have traditional access to health care that need these devices that work in extreme conditions or with operators that aren\u2019t necessarily medical doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Space and spaceflight have always been compelling for Hazel and with graduation less than a year away, he jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the field and meet the researchers and engineers leading the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an opportunity for me to learn about an industry that I\u2019ve always been interested in, to learn about some of the issues of space, to learn about how as an engineer after I graduate can get involved with the space sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the summer, Dayal and Hazel will continue to work under Donoviel to better examine space medicine and find answers to problems affecting space travel \u2014\u00a0a feat that gives Donoviel hope for the next generation of scientists.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country needs more of these bright young minds staying in the sciences and being engaged in cutting-edge research,\u201d she said. \u201cBringing space and medicine and engineering together is about as cutting-edge as you can get. I\u2019m very excited about the prospects of these two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story by Brandon Bieltz, Office of Communications and Public Affairs
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diana Dayal and Bobby Hazel are spending their summer working alongside researchers from NASA, academia and industry to better understand Vision Impairment and Intracranial Pressure syndrome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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