October 2006

NASA and GW Join Fight Against Diabetes

GW researchers are using NASA technology to examine insulin in rat beta cells.

Scientists at GW and Cornell University are adapting NASA image processing technology used to explore orbital images of Earth and distant worlds for diabetes research.

“With our modifications, NASA technology has provided us with new tools for fighting diabetes,” says Murray Loew, director of the Biomedical Engineering Program and professor of engineering at GW’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The research team has analyzed electron photomicrographs—images from an electron microscope—of beta cells from rats. The hormone insulin, which regulates blood glucose levels, is manufactured in beta cells in the pancreas. Microscopic structures called granules carry insulin toward the cell wall of the beta cells, where it is secreted in response to glucose levels in the blood.

The original NASA technology helps scientists classify image elements, known as pixels, and identify different types of landforms, geology, and vegetation. In the laboratory, it has been adapted to identify biological structures called insulin granules. The research team observed the number, size, and position of insulin granules in the beta cells in response to glucose, which cells use for energy.

“Previously, the analysis of each electron micrograph took an assistant several hours to complete. Now, with the image processing software, we can automatically analyze several dozen electron micrographs overnight,” says Tim McClanahan, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Diabetes, which afflicts more than 20 million Americans, is caused by the body’s inability to regulate glucose. Insulin regulates glucose by unlocking the interior of cells and allowing glucose in blood to pass through the cell wall.
The team has submitted proposals to the National Institutes of Health and
the American Diabetes Association to further validate the technology
with additional data and to extend the work to identify and characterize other microscopic cellular structures. The research is being funded by Goddard’s Part-Time Graduate Study Program, the NIH, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu