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Healing power of light. Glowing red light emitted by light-emitting diodes or LEDs has been used to grow plants on NASA's Space Shuttle. Now, doctors at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee are using this near-infrared light to promote wound healing.

(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photo by Barry Himelhoch, Medical Center Graphics Inc.)

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Wound healing device. The wound-healing device made by Quantum Devices Inc. in Barneveld, Wis., is a small 3.5-inch by 4.5-inch (90 by 145-millimeter) portable, flat array of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. A nurse practitioner places the LED array on the outside of a patient's cheek where it shines for just over a minute each day, promoting wound healing and preventing mouth sores caused by radiation and chemotherapy. Quantum Devices and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee are conducting the multi-year project through a contract with the Technology Transfer Department at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photo by Barry Himelhoch, Medical Center Graphics Inc.)

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Light-emitting diodes promote cell growth. Skin, bone and muscle cells grown in cultures are exposed to the same light-emitting diodes used to treat wounds in patients and grow plants in space. Biologists at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee have shown that cells exposed to the near-infrared light grow 150 to 200 percent faster than ground control cells not stimulated by the light. Through a research project funded by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., scientists are trying to learn more about the way cells convert light to energy and identify the wavelengths of light that are most effective at stimulating growth.

(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photo by Barry Himelhoch, Medical Center Graphics Inc.)

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Three types of red light. Ellen Buchmann, a molecular biologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, is conducting research to investigate how infrared energy from light-emitting diodes influences the growth of cells. Doctors are examining how this infrared energy promotes wound healing. Three rows of glowing light-emitting diodes release energy at specific wavelengths. Different cells, such as skin, bone and muscle cells, respond differently to various wavelengths or energy levels of light. The light can penetrate tissue to a depth of up to 9 inches (23 centimeters). Quantum Devices Inc., of Barneveld, Wis., manufactures the light-emitting diode units as part of a contract through the Technology Transfer Department at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photo by Tracy McMahan.)

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From spuds to space medicine. Quantum Devices Inc., of Barneveld, Wis., builds the light-emitting diodes used in medical devices and for growing plants, like potatoes, inside the ASTROCULTUREŠ facility -- a plant growth unit developed for use on the Space Shuttle by the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR). WCSAR is one of 16 NASA Commercial Space Centers that help companies fly experiments in space. The ASTROCULTUREŠ facility has flown on eight Space Shuttle missions, including this one in 1995 in which potatoes were grown in space. The LEDs will be used in the ADVANCED ASTROCULTUREŠ unit next year on the International Space Station. Such commercial payloads are flown under the Space Product Development Program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Ñ NASA's lead center for microgravity research.

(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photo)

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Growing plants on the International Space Station. Dr. Weijia Zhou, director of the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, participates in a test to prepare the ADVANCED ASTROCULTUREŠ facility for flight on the International Space Station. The facility uses light-emitting diodes, or LEDS, to grow plants. The LEDs now being used for brain surgery and to heal wounds are "spin-offs" from the diodes used to grow plants in space. The Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics is one of 16 NASA Commercial Space Centers that help industry fly experiments in space. These commercial experiments are managed by NASA's Space Product Development Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photo by Tracy McMahan)

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From space flight to hospitals on Earth. Numerous surgeries to remove brain tumors have been completed over the past year using a light-emitting diode surgical probe. Recently, doctors at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee completed the first-ever surgery with an improved drug, Benzoporphyrin Derivative (BPD), and a brain surgery probe that emits longer waves of light to stimulate the photodynamic drug. The research is funded by the Technology Transfer Department at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photo by Barry Himelhoch, Medical Center Graphics Inc.)

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Penetrating light. Quantum Devices Inc. in Barneveld, Wis., has designed a new gold-plated probe for use in brain surgeries conducted as part of the research of Dr. Harry Whelan at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Clinical trials Ñ approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Ñ are continuing. Wound healing studies with a different kind of light-emitting diode device are also under way. The wound-healing device and the brain surgery probe produce long wavelengths of infrared light that penetrate deeply but are cool to the touch. Both projects are funded by the Technology Transfer Department at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photo by Tracy McMahan.)

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Space-age brain surgery probe. Red light from the Light-Emitting Diode (LED) brain surgery probe shines through the fingers of Dr. Harry Whelan, a pediatric neurologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Whelan uses the long wavelength light from the LED probe to activate special drugs that kill brain tumors. The high-powered LEDs are used to grow plants on NASA's Space Shuttle.

(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photo by Emmett Given)

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