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Mike Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, DC May 29, 1997
(Phone: 202/358-1979)
Linda Matthews Copley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-8609)
RELEASE: 97-116
NASA, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, SIGN AGREEMENT TO ESTABLISH A
NATIONAL SPACE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
NASA today signed an agreement with Baylor College of
Medicine, Houston, TX, to establish a National Space Biomedical
Research Institute. Baylor will lead a consortium of premier
academic and research facilities across the country to conduct the
focused biomedical research necessary to support human health in
the exploration and development of space.
The agreement is for five years with three five-year
extensions. The total value of the 20-year agreement is
approximately $145 million. The Johnson Space Center, Houston,
TX, will sponsor the Institute.
NASA identified the concept of a science institute as a means
of maintaining the scientific excellence of its applied biomedical
research through a greater involvement of the scientific community
in NASA's overall research program.
The members of the National Space Biomedical Research
Institute consortium are: Baylor College of Medicine; Harvard
Medical School, Cambridge, MA; Johns Hopkins University's School
of Medicine and Applied Physics Laboratory, Baltimore and Laurel,
MD; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA;
Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA; Rice University,
Houston, TX; and Texas A & M University, College Station.
The specific objectives of the Institute include:
- Implement a research plan that will lead to the knowledge and
technologies required for long-duration space flight, including
specific countermeasures;
- Ensure the dissemination of knowledge to the scientific
community;
- Facilitate science community access to NASA's space biomedical
research expertise and facilities;
- Ensure that technology development and knowledge are
transferred to the private sector.
"The Biomedical Research Institute will greatly enhance the
quality of our Life Sciences research program as we take advantage
of the capability and expertise of the Baylor College of Medicine
and the consortium," said Johnson Director George W.S. Abbey.
"The consortium also will benefit by its involvement with NASA as
we make our facilities and assets available to it. And the public
will benefit as space technology is made available to solve
problems here on Earth."
Dr. Ralph D. Feigin, President of Baylor College of Medicine
said, "This venture is an exciting opportunity for the worlds of
space science and biomedical science to join forces. We are
particularly pleased that Baylor's Dr. Bobby R. Alford will serve
as chairman of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute."
"Baylor College of Medicine, the consortium institutions and
the integrated research teams are more excited than ever about the
extraordinary challenge and potential that this powerful
partnership between NASA and academia, linked to industry,
offers," said Bobby R. Alford, M.D., chairman of the National
Space Biomedical Research Institute Board.
"We believe the opportunities are unlimited to foster and
enhance the Space Life Sciences and insure the safe long term
human presence, development and exploration of space; which in
turn, because of biomedical discoveries and advances in knowledge
and technology, will enhance life on Earth," Alford added.
The director of the National Space Biomedical Research
Institute will be Dr. Laurence R. Young, Apollo Professor of
Astronautics at MIT. Dr. Young termed the institute "a major
step toward further human exploration of the solar system."
-end-