SUMMER 2023 | 29 necessary to monitor infection and the environment,” Cheng says, adding that the research will generate fundamental knowledge about thermophoresis that will aid in the development of viral separations. Cheng, working with the Office of Creative Inquiry at Lehigh, takes undergrad students to poverty-stricken Sierra Leone in West Africa over the summers to learn about the healthcare challenges of the people there. Knowledge gathered from fundamental research could inform Cheng’s work on devices to help improve public health in resource-limited countries, Gilchrist says. Gilchrist and Schultz have spent the last two years working with Huntsville, Ala.–based Tec-Masters, Inc., to develop the lab equipment for their experiments, which includes a compact microscope with a camera and a computer. Tec-Masters specializes in “systems engineering services for flight payloads, including design, development, prototyping and digital engineering,” according to its website. The equipment will also be used for unrelated research by another university, Gilchrist says. The development process has been very time-consuming, with weekly meetings among the collaborators from Lehigh, Tec-Masters and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space that cover every detail and safety concern—from how hot the experiment could get to the possibility of a short circuit. “It does take quite an effort to launch stuff into space, I’ve learned,” says Gilchrist. “It’s a complicated process. They want to be sure.” The experiments involve 30 samples of tiny polystyrene fluorescent particles immersed in various fluids and gels and mounted on glass slides. Gilchrist says the samples will be heated on one side and cooled on the other. The microscope will track the motion of the particles to examine how they move in different temperatures. A camera in the microscope will take pictures and send them to the computer. “You essentially remotely log in and open the software that would move the samples, turn on the microscope, turn on the heat, take images and download the images,” says Gilchrist. “It’s very much like a Microsoft Windows remote desktop environment. It’s like it’s in a lab down the hall, but it’s in space.” Gilchrist initially envisioned himself and Ph.D. student Nazrin Hasanova ’21 as the operators of the microscope. Hasanova has worked with Gilchrist, Schultz and former postdoctoral researcher Maria Chiara Roffin for more than a year to help design the experiments and analyze data. But due to safety and security concerns, Gilchrist says, his Tec-Masters partners will likely be doing the daily login, in consultation with Gilchrist and Hasanova. “After it gets in place, we have three weeks to run the experiments. We will be working with Tec-Masters to heat up the samples, take images and download data every night.” Gilchrist expects he will have some interaction with the astronauts, who will have to, at the very least, set up the equipment, connect the computer to the Internet and start the experiments. “We think most of the operations will happen 4 p.m. to midnight. The astronauts sleep during that time, so there will be less vibration,” Gilchrist says. The hope, Gilchrist says, is to have data in 2024 and then adequate time under the grant timeline to analyze the data and publish the results. “If successful, we could continue,” he says. “If we are getting great data, we can ask to launch more samples.” L “It’s very much like a Microsoft Windows remote desktop environment. It’s like it’s in a lab down the hall, but it’s in space.” –JAMES Gilchrist
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