Scientists Seek Device for Space Surgery

Armed with a $3.6 million grant, University of Washington researchers are developing, among other things, a portable ultrasound device that could find and cure ailments without surgery.

An ultrasound machine can identify internal injuries, and scientists have discovered that heating tissues with an beam from the device also can stop internal bleeding and kill cells of tumors, UW researcher Michael R. Bailey said Friday.

"I feel weird talking about it. It sounds like 'Star Trek'," Bailey added, referring to gizmos used by the space travel epic's Dr. "Bones" McCoy.

'Cooking' Human Tissue

"That's the idea," said Dr. Martin Kushmerick, UW professor of radiology, bioengineering, physiology and biophysics. "That's not entirely far-fetched."

UW researchers were awarded the grant over the next three years by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a 12-institution consortium to study space medicine.

The goal of the consortium, in conjunction with NASA, is to research whether astronauts could survive a planned 2014 mission to Mars — a six-month trip to a planet with about 40 percent of the gravity of Earth, said Kushmerick, who is heading scientists from five institutions studying the body's response to traveling in space for long periods.

The UW team received $900,000 to create a model of a battery-powered ultrasound device to provide medical help to astronauts in deep space, Bailey said.

"For our application, we're proposing a fix to keep someone alive," Bailey said.

Scientists are studying the long-term effects of "cooking" the tissue, as well as overcoming any obstacles to using such a machine in space.

"We're fairly certain it works on the ground," Bailey said. "We think there will be some challenges for working in space."

Dr. Lawrence Crum, director of the Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound at the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory, was named co-team leader of the consortium program "Smart Medical Systems," which includes the ultrasound device.