The major goal of MME (“Molecular Muscle Experiment”) is to determine the molecular causes of muscle abnormalities during spaceflight, and target these to establish effective countermeasures. Using the validated model organism C. elegans, combined with flight-validated methodologies, the aim is to target the molecular alterations that are most consistently correlated with muscular and metabolic abnormalities across species in spaceflight (i.e. insulin- and attachment-mediated signalling). The consequences of these interventions for recovering muscle health will then be assessed by gene and protein expression/localisation, and by establishing a novel D2O tracer-based technique for measuring C. elegans metabolism.
The Principal Investigator (PI) is Timothy Etheridge of the University of Exeter, UK. The Payload Developer (PD) is Kayser Italia S.r.l. The HW consists of 24 KIC-NLA experiment containers.