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Out of this world

Ohio State helped Michael Chung discover how he can blend his talents to help address muscle atrophy in astronauts.

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Michael Chung displays his lab equipment that he uses to develop artificial muscles to be tested in space

As a sophomore, Michael Chung was leading a biomedical research team that was developing artificial muscles to be tested in space.

Michael Chung arrived at Ohio State and immediately found himself doing more than learning how to navigate campus. As a freshman, Chung joined a research team working with NASA to study muscle atrophy in space.

“As a freshman, I was shell-shocked a project like this could even exist, that I would be working with NASA,” said Chung, who majored in pre-med biochemistry with a minor in neuroscience. “It’s a dream come true.”

Under the direction of Assistant Professor Peter Lee, the research team included a biomedical team of pre-med students from the College of Medicine and a team from the College of Engineering. By his sophomore year, Chung was overseeing the biomedical team, which was developing artificial muscles to be tested in space.

“As a pre-med major, I was only focused on the science aspect of it all,” Chung said. “But as I began to understand the engineering team and see the necessity of such an interdisciplinary effort, I started to understand Ohio State is really dedicated to undergraduate research in all departments and having students excel in all majors and disciplines.”