Hello, we have the possibility to send an eperiment to the ISS, I was thinking to clone various bacteria or cell cultures and to divide them in 6 samples, two will go for a month to ISS and be exposed to Space radiaton and ISS environement. 2 will remain in the lab in normal conditions and 2 more will remain in the lab with artificually made cosmic ray radiation. The aim is to control if cosmic rays are the big factor or other factors influence stress in cells. Now, what cell or living organism or bacteria is a good candidate for this? thanks for your help
I am not sure but radioresistant insect cell line e.g SF9 might be a potential candidate. These are regularly used to study molecular mechanism of ionizing radiation response.
I have coached a team of high school students through this exact sort of project before! I would suggest you look at some previously funded projects, read the project guidelines in detail, talk with research faculty who would be willing to share reagents/samples with you, and do a lot of brainstorming. There are lots of potential choices. You'll want to pick an organism that isn't banned from being sent (pretty sure you can't send pathogens like Anthrax), can live at "room temperature conditions", and will survive the several days/weeks in the tiny tubes. You'll also want to know ahead of time how you will measure "stress responses".
Folks have sent: yeast, E. coli, nematode worms, alfalfa plants - just to name a few.
Have fun and good luck!
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