Aims and Purposes

The general purposes of the Astrobiology Center are:

To bring together diverse areas of expertise to achieve complex new science that heretofore has not existed; and

To facilitate expansion of current interactions between Tulane University Medical Center and NASA and others in the scientific community with similar interests and expertise.

The specific purposes of the Astrobiology Center are:

To facilitate completion of protocols in tissue engineering;

To facilitate visits between personnel; and

To facilitate current and future collaborative scientific interactions (grants and contracts; manuscripts; patents and licenses).

This reflects new initiatives mandated by the administrator of NASA as outlined at the American Society for Cell Biology meeting in December 1996. NASA is reinventing the process of scientific exploration by encouraging university and commercial participation rather than unilateral in-house completion of all NASA programs.

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