Program Goals

NCI and NASA acknowledge mutual objectives in advancing the development of technologies and informatics tools to enable minimally-invasive detection, diagnosis, and management of disease and injury. The NCI's need is for technologies that can couple minimally invasive sensing and signaling of early signatures of cancer in patients and will have the capability for controlled and monitored intervention, specific to these signatures. NASA's requirements are for remote sensing, and for diagnosis and treatment of injury, illness, and emerging pathologies in astronauts during long duration space missions.

NASA and NCI are specifically interested in supporting the development of new technologies to scan the body for the earliest signatures of emerging disease and to facilitate immediate, specific intervention. The ability to scan the body for early signatures requires these technologies to be minimally invasive. To prevent the rapid expansion of the disease and maximize the benefit of the earliest detection, future technologies should support the seamless interface between detection, diagnosis and intervention. Essential to the utility of these technologies is the development of information infrastructure and analysis tools. These tools will link the information on basic discoveries, intervention discoveries, and clinical outcome information to specific patient histories that will aid the caregiver in making rapid, informed decisions about appropriate intervention.

The combination of key and attractive technology areas of nanotechnology, information technology, and biotechnology, with NASA's unique venue of outer space, creates an exciting and stimulating forum for the leading edge of science and technology. NASA's efforts, combined with those of the NCI, will provide opportunities for university education and commercialization. Tools developed in this program will lead to devices which will support crew health and safety, basic biology research, life detection, planetary protection, and support the now critical national needs of counter terrorism activities.