What has NASA done for you lately?

How about this?

NDAnalyzer -- Cancer Detection Device

A medical-related spinoff, the DNAnalyzer, resulted from a NASA/American Cancer Society partnership, the Space Station In-Flight Cytometry Project. To help decipher the medical mystery of why and how microgravity affects the immune system, NASA sought development of a machine that could separate and examine cells rapidly.

The existing device was too large -- the size of a pool table -- to place in an orbiting space station, so the partnership was formed to develop a far more compact flow cytometer. The resulting hardware could support biomedical experiments aboard the space station while advancing medical knowledge in cancer detection and treatment on Earth.

A Miami, Fla., business, RATCOM, Inc., pioneered the new triangular flow cell technology that improves resolution in flow cytometer technology. The cancer-fighting benefits of flow cytometry include the ability to evaluate cancer cells very early and to determine several important features, such as the sensitivity of the cancer cells to different chemotherapy drugs, the ability of the cells to grow, and their capacity for spreading.

The DNAnalyzer allows better understanding of the nature of a patient's tumor, thereby enabling better treatment. Dr. Awtar Krishan at the University of Miami, who was instrumental in defining requirements for the instrument, is carrying out studies on the application of the technology in cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Other potential uses of the new technology involve early detection of leukemia, chemo-sensitivity studies prior to chemotherapy, antibody analysis, and detection of pathogenic organisms.

That's only one benefit that your tax dollars have paid for through research that NASA has conducted...better, faster detection and understanding of potential cancer, leading to faster treatment, which can make all the difference sometimes in survivability.

NASA's budget is 0.6% of the entire national budget. Not even 1%. That's about 15 cents per day per taxpayer. Think of your favorite vice...coffee, chocolate, cigarettes. You spend more on that every day than you spend on NASA. NASA does a great deal more than most people realize. That's one of the purposes of this blog. I will continue to bring updates on such technology spinoffs from NASA research and technology.

Or if you don't want to wait and want to learn more, visit NASA's Spinoff magazine site and peruse the myriad technological products and benefits which NASA brings to our daily life.

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2008/toc_2008.html