Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, DC               March 27, 1997
(Phone: 202/358-1979)

RELEASE: 97-57

NASA ANNOUNCES LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH GRANTS

     NASA has selected 52 proposals to receive one- to four-year 
grants for conducting ground-based or space-borne life sciences 
research, totaling approximately $6.7 million.

     NASA Life Sciences grants provide investigators with the 
opportunity to study and characterize basic biological mechanisms 
in ways not possible on Earth.  By utilizing access to space as a 
research tool, NASA-sponsored research will advance fundamental 
knowledge of the ways in which weightlessness, radiation, and 
other aspects of the space environment interact with biological 
processes.  These grants also seek to further the application of 
this knowledge to procedures and technologies that enable humans 
to live, work, and explore in space and that benefit the health 
and well-being of people on Earth.

     The purpose of these grants is to enhance scientific and 
technological research in space life sciences.  The grants 
selected for funding were submitted to NASA in May 1996 in 
response to formal research announcements.  The announcements 
requested proposals for research on Earth and during spaceflight 
to address fundamental questions of the ways gravity influences 
fundamental biological processes.

     NASA received 443 proposals in response to these research 
announcements.  The proposals were subjected to independent peer 
review through panels made up of external scientific and technical 
experts.  The selected proposals represent the following areas:  
advanced life support (8), behavior and performance (2), space 
physiology and countermeasures (17), space human factors 
engineering (2), space biology (18), advanced technology 
development (1), advanced environmental monitoring and 
control (3), and environmental health (1).

     Sponsored by NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences 
and Applications in Washington, DC, these announcements offer 
investigators the opportunity to take advantage of NASA's research 
facilities.

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Editor's Note:  A list of the grant recipients is available to 
media representatives by calling the NASA Headquarters Newsroom at 
202/358-1600.