Ginger N. Flores, LOCAD Project Manager, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL

Diagnosis on Earth is a fairly simple procedure, done at any hospital or medical center. In space flight, however, where doctors and even basic medical equipment may be lacking, falling ill is a serious matter for both astronaut and ground control. Using horseshoe crab blood as a reactive agent, the Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System (LOCAD-PTS) is a handheld device developed by NASA researchers to help identify microorganisms. Ginger N. Flores is the LOCAD project manager.