Page "Caenorhabditis elegans" Paragraph 18

C. elegans made news when it was discovered that specimens had survived the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003.

Later, in January 2009, it was announced that live samples of C. elegans from the University of Nottingham would spend two weeks on the International Space Station that October as part of a project to explore the effects of zero gravity on muscle development and its physiology.

The emphasis of the research was to be on the genetic basis of muscle atrophy.

This has relevance to space travel, but also to individuals who are bed-ridden, geriatric or diabetic.

Descendants of the worms aboard Columbia in 2003 were launched into space on Endeavour for the STS-134 mission.