John Glenn visits Lerner Research Institute's Center for Space Medicine

Former U.S. Sen. John Glenn, who helped lead the United States into space as part of the Mercury project, visited the Lerner Research Institute's Center for Space Medicine to see space-related experiments that will help lead the country's future space exploration.

Sen. Glenn was joined by Paul E. DiCorleto, Ph.D., Institute Chair, and Peter R. Cavanagh, Ph.D., D.Sc., Chair of the Institute's Department of Biomedical Engineering and Co-Director of the Center for Space Medicine.

While at the Institute, Sen. Glenn was briefed on two prominent programs: the Zero-Gravity Locomotion Simulator (ZLS) and a trial simulating the microgravity of space to study the effects of exercise on bone/muscle loss, for convenience known as the "Bedrest Study."

The ZLS is designed as a testbed to allow exercise in microgravity (as on the International Space Station) and reduced gravity (as on the moon and Mars) to be simulated. The ZLS comprises a motorized vertical treadmill, a subject suspension system, and a Subject Load Device (SLD). The horizontally suspended subject walks, jogs or performs other exercise while being pulled towards the treadmill by the pneumatic SLD, attached to a harness that goes around the waist and over the shoulders. This ZLS is currently used in studies for NASA to explore exercise countermeasures that may prevent bone and muscle loss during space flight. The application of the ZLS to early reduced-loading rehabilitation protocols following reconstructive joint surgery is also being explored. Matt Kuklis and Craig Bennetts, Senior Research Engineers in Dr. Cavanagh's laboratory demonstrated the ZLS.

The goal of the Bedrest Study is to determine if individualized mechanical load replacement and supplementation during bedrest can serve as a countermeasure to losses in bone mineral density and bone quality and to muscle atrophy during 12 weeks of bedrest. Half of the bedrest subjects are randomly assigned to "replacement" exercise on the ZLS, which provides an equivalent daily load stimulus to that measured during free living in the pre-bedrest period. Sen. Glenn met with Dominic Prinzo, a Bedrest Study subject, Ricki Englehaupt, R.N., a Research Nurse coordinating the 12-week bedrest study, and Rami Rizk, a research student who works with Englehaupt on the study.