NASA's Protein Crystal Work Gets Mixed Reviews

Abstract

The latest verdict on the utility of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration's protein crystal growth research in microgravity is mixed. In a just released report, a National Research Council (NRC) task group agrees with NASA's critics that efforts to grow higher quality protein crystals in space have been incremental at best. Not one space-based crystallization endeavor has proven to be the determining step in achieving breakthrough scientific results. Still, the task group offers NASA solace. The panel finds that there is reason to believe that crystallization in a microgravity environment may contribute to advances in structural biology. Therefore, the panel says, NASA should continue such studies aboard the space station to determine whether a low-gravity environment offers advantages over ground-based crystallization. The task group was really not in a position to make a determination of whether microgravity conditions can provide seminal contributions, says its acting chairman, Gary S. Ste...