CSUN Professor Awarded NASA Grants for Space Agriculture and Microbe Research
A Cal State Northridge (CSUN) biology professor, Chhandak Basu, has received two NASA grants totaling $700,000. The latest grant, for $400,000, will fund research into how microgravity and drought-like conditions affect leafy greens such as lettuce, spinach, and mustard greens, and explore methods to mitigate these effects. This research is being conducted in partnership with NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, with co-investigator Craig Everroad. The previous $300,000 NASA grant supported Basu's study on how the salt-tolerant microbe Halobacterium salinarum survives exposure to ultraviolet light, heavy metals, and high salt concentrations. Researchers will use a clinostat device to simulate microgravity by rotating plants, effectively confusing them about the direction of gravity. The team also plans to investigate microbes in the root zones of plants grown in simulated Martian and lunar soils.
