Sarah Keegan
Headquarters, Washington, DC               September 14, 2000
(Phone:  202/358-1902)

RELEASE:  00-143

LANDMARK COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT GIVES
BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH A NEW DIMENSION

NASA has entered into a groundbreaking agreement with the private 
sector to explore a new frontier in biotechnology, focusing on 
infectious disease research and developing a liver-assist device 
for patients in need of transplant surgery.

Inspired by a news article on NASA's efforts to commercialize 
space activities, H. Fisk Johnson, Ph.D., president of Wisconsin-
based, private venture capital company Fisk Ventures, Inc. (FVI), 
approached the Agency about a partnership which culminated in an 
agreement to develop commercial medical products using NASA's 
Bioreactor technology.

"This is a great deal for the American people," said NASA 
Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. "It's a symbol of the success that 
can be achieved when government, private industry and academia 
work together on the exploration of new frontiers for scientific, 
technological and economic growth." 

Goldin and Johnson signed the agreement today in a ceremony at the 
U.S. Capitol.

"Some of the best minds from NASA and our group collaborated over 
three years, conducting an extensive analysis to determine what 
was technically possible and the most likely to succeed in the 
market," Johnson explained. "This led us to NASA's ability to 
conduct research on cell cultures in the microgravity environment 
of space, and its unique cell-culture technology on the ground, 
that bridges the gap between what you can do in the traditional 
lab and what you can do in a space-based lab."

NASA invented the rotating Bioreactor as a way to study the impact 
of microgravity on cellular growth both here on Earth and in 
space. Traditional cell-growth research often produces single-
cell, pancake-like cultures.  The Bioreactor works by spinning a 
fluid medium filled with cells. The spinning motion neutralizes 
most of gravity's effects, creating a near-weightless environment 
that allows cells to grow more freely, in a three-dimensional 
manner.

FVI and In Vitro Technologies, Inc. of Maryland have formed a 
joint venture to turn this market-driven model into a scientific 
and commercial success. The new venture -- StelSys, based in 
Baltimore, MD -- will focus on commercializing microgravity 
research specifically in areas related to biological systems.

"NASA's Bioreactor technology is simply a tool box, and if you 
give a tool box to the right people, they can build a house," said 
Goldin. "We believe we've put this tool box in the right hands of 
the right people.

"The goal is revolutionary improvements in health care," he 
continued, "including:

*  Biomolecule  Production: Mature liver cells make unique 
biomolecules for the body.  By using the Bioreactor to simulate 
the natural conditions within the body, we could potentially 
harvest the biomolecules and use them as a jump start on the road 
to new drugs or other therapies.  This could help us to screen 
drugs, test them, and get them to patients more quickly.

*  Natural Vitamin D3 Production:  People on kidney dialysis need 
Vitamin D3, but it is expensive to make and difficult to purify. 
The Bioreactor will allow StelSys to mimic the natural D3 
production in kidney cells and assess whether D3 can be produced 
easily and inexpensively.  

*  Culturing Infectious Diseases: Some pathogens that cause 
disease cannot be grown effectively using traditional cell 
culturing technology. Use of the Bioreactor could allow us to grow 
pathogens under conditions similar to those in the body.  When 
scientists have the means to study these pathogens, they may be 
better able to develop and test treatments for them.

*  Liver assist device: Today, people with severe liver failure 
cannot survive without a transplant. The Bioreactor could lead to 
the development of a machine to bridge the wait time between 
diagnosis and transplant, giving hope to the 25,000 Americans who 
die from liver disease each year."

Johnson added, "Looking at this from both a scientific and 
business perspective, I am convinced there is great potential for 
microgravity and the Bioreactor to unleash new developments with 
significant social and commercial value."

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