Millie Hughes-Fulford, Scientist and Prior Astronaut

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - T-cell science team member Tara Candelario of the Hughes-Fulford Laboratory, San Francisco, Calif., at the microscope, discusses preflight and post-flight experiment operations with researcher and principal investigator Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as T-cell science team members Emily Martinez, left, and Miya Yoshida look on. The immunology experiment will launch on SpaceX-3 and focus on the effects of microgravity on early T-cell signaling pathways. Current work aims to identify and compare the gene expression of microRNAs miRNAs during T-cell activation under normal gravity and in microgravity, and compare those patterns to changes seen in aging populations. The experiment will be the first flown on SpaceX funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Hughes-Fulford flew aboard space shuttle mission STS-40 in June 1991, the first Spacelab mission dedicated to biomedical studies. For more information on the T-cell experiment, visit http://hughesfulfordlab.com and http://www.nasa.gov/ames/research/space-biosciences/t-cell-activation-in-aging-spacex-3/. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston