ISS Results: Stem Cells in Space

**Gary Jordan** (0:00)
Houston, We Have a Podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, episode 432, ISS Results, Stem Cells in Space. I'm Gary Jordan, and I'll be your host today. On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers and astronauts, all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight and more. If you're an avid listener of this podcast, you're likely familiar with science aboard the International Space Station. More than 25 years of continuous human presence and hundreds of investigations. Sure, there are laboratories all over the globe, and many have unique capabilities that draw researchers in to submit proposals and advance humanity's understanding of an endless number of subjects. The International Space Station offers the unique capabilities of microgravity and the harsh environment of space. And the number of facilities on board support experiments in biology, earth science, space science, physics, you name it. For stem cell research, this microgravity environment has welcomed some fascinating experiments. A particular investigation called Microgravity Expanded Stem Cells was conducted on station from 2016 to 2017
The study looked at whether the unique space environment could expand human stem cells, which is a needed process for them to be used in various medical therapies. But in space, how does the expansion process change? The principal investigator of this study, Dr. Abba Zubair, co-authored a recently published research paper about the findings of this study. On this episode, we get a chance to speak with the principal investigator about these exciting results. Dr. Zubair chats with us from Jacksonville, Florida, where he is posted as the medical director for transfusion medicine and stem cell therapy at Mayo Clinic's Florida campus. His focus within this field is on regenerative medicine and immunotherapy applications that involve stem cells and other types of cells. In the meantime, let's get to our conversation with Dr. Abba Zubair about his research and the results that have stemmed from the microgravity environment, pun totally intended. Enjoy.

**Abba Zubair** (2:18)
Houston, we have a podcast.

**Gary Jordan** (2:23)
Dr. Abba Zubair, thank you so much for coming on Houston We Have a Podcast today.

**Abba Zubair** (2:28)
Thank you.

**Gary Jordan** (2:30)
It's great to have you. I know we've been kind of back and forth trying to make this work. You know, I think we're all busy, but you certainly, you do a lot at the university that you're at, a lot of research, and you're still practicing.
You have to work with your patients. And so the fact that we're talking right now is this is certainly very special to us. Take us through, who is Dr. Abba Zubair? If you don't mind maybe starting very briefly with, you know, where you grew up, and then how you got to the profession of where you are today, including perhaps maybe inspiration for pursuing medical degrees and getting your, you know, pursuing stem cell research.

**Abba Zubair** (3:07)
Absolutely. So thank you, Ajay. It's really an honor to be on this show and talking to your audience, which I'm sure they cut across the nation and maybe abroad.
So you can tell from my accent, and I'm not from New Jersey, but I grew up in Nigeria.
This is a country in West Africa.
You know, went to high school, medical school in Nigeria.
But I have been fascinated by space. You know, in the global world, electricity is not always available.
So that could be some kind of limitation. But at night, the sky becomes alive. You know, the stars are more visible. You look out, you kind of wonder. And I'm sure there are many of your audience like that. Whether you're in Nigeria or in Florida, wherever you are, some of us are curious. For as far as I can remember, I'm always fascinated by space and what is out there. But I wanted to be an astronaut. And obviously, being in Nigeria, that chances are very limited. And my career advisor in high school said, look Abba, you can do anything, but being an astronaut may not be in your lifetime. So you better rethink and do something more realistic. So I look around and I see a lot of diseases, a lot of people suffering. And I said, well, I really want to make a difference in that arena. So that's how I ended up going to medical school.
And in medical school, it's really fascinating. And we had a lot of experience expatriate from around the world. We had medical students from New York also coming to our medical school. So I get exposed to foreign medical students and we share ideas. I also become really fascinated by just knowledge and what is out there that I can do. So at the moment, after medical school, I really want to explore. I want to make a difference. So that journey took me through England where I did a PhD in cancer immunology. And then right after a PhD, I got a green card. So it was a lottery. So I never thought I would be in the US, but I just came with a green card. Never had a regular US visa. But then in the US, I started at the University of Pennsylvania, working as a researcher. But really, my heart is in the care of patients. So even as much I like the science, I wanted to really also see patients and interact. So I did all the exams. And then I was likely an opener, and I became available in the same institution, at the University of Pennsylvania. Went into lab medicine and pathology, because I've done a lot of lab work. And I figured that would be a field that would bridge my basic research experience and patient care. But then I end up really loving Transpute Medicine, which is really the part of lab medicine that is very clinical. We see patient, we do procedures and stuff like that. So that really attracted me. And one of my clinical role is to collect stem cells for bone marrow transplant. We collected by East Moorises, a device that specialized for doing that. We also process the stem cell in our lab, either from bone marrow aspirate in the OR or by East Moorises. We also received cod blood. So I see the value of stem cell and how it is helping people recover after they have blood cancer. But I have some patients also that don't have enough stem cells, either to donate them for themselves because of their disease. I also see that some patients don't have the luxury of having siblings that can donate for them. So I became very fascinated of finding ways to expand stem cell. But the stem cell is like a seed. They limit their health. Of course, if you have too much seed, then it becomes like cancer. So when you try to grow stem cell, they always keep their number intact. So I then start thinking out of the box, and link my dream of the space, and say, well, how about if we take out gravity, maybe it will affect the biology of stem cell and make them to grow. And so that's how I end up studying stem cell in space.