For Release: Sept. 29, 1997

Steve Roy
Office of Media Services
(205)544-6535
steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 97-244

NASA will award Dr. Lawrence J. DeLucas of Birmingham, Ala., the NASA Public Service Medal on Sept. 30 to recognize his support of the space agency's Microgravity Research Program. The ceremony will be at 3:30 p.m. in the president's conference room of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The NASA Public Service Medal is awarded to U.S. citizens who are not NASA employees and who have made exceptional contributions to the administration and technical management of NASA programs.

DeLucas is director of the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography, a commercial space center, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He will be presented the award for his contributions to advanced disease-fighting, biotechnology research and his leadership in protein crystal growth research. Scientists grow protein crystals in space and ground-based experiments to study their molecular structure, as part of the effort to design new life-saving drugs.

DeLucas' experience with protein crystal growth research includes Earth-based and space-based experiments. DeLucas was a payload specialist crew member on the Space Shuttle Columbia's 1992 mission -- the first flight of the U.S. Microgravity Laboratory. He conducted protein crystal growth experiments in the near-weightless environment of space, known as microgravity.

DeLucas developed three successful microgravity flight experiment programs involving protein crystal growth aboard subsequent Shuttle missions. These involved the Vapor Diffusion Apparatus, the Crystal Observation System and the second-generation Vapor Diffusion Apparatus experiment systems. DeLucas' space-based experiments resulted in many examples of larger and more pure protein crystal samples than possible in ground-based research.

Using these space and Earth-grown crystals, research teams analyze the proteins to discover their molecular structure. By pinpointing the protein's structure, researchers can design a drug that will fit into the protein's unique shape to block its undesirable characteristics.

"It's like trying to build a tiny key that fits into a tiny lock," says DeLucas. "Except this lock is living, breathing, flexing, changing temperatures and in constant motion."

Since DeLucas began his research using protein crystals, his studies have led to advances in the fight against cancer, diabetes, hepatitis, the flu, heart disease and AIDS.

NASA's efforts in protein crystal growth are managed by the Microgravity Research Program office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Media interested in covering the ceremony or interested in interviewing Dr. DeLucas should contact Melanie Parker at the UAB Public Relations Office at (205)934-8935. The ceremony is at the UAB Central Administrative Building, 10th Floor, in the president's conference room. The address is 701 20th St. South in Birmingham.

Video and still photos of Dr. DeLucas' space-based experiments aboard Spacelab missions may be obtained from Steve Roy at Marshall Center at (205)544-6535.