Multi-Omics for Astronauts and Missions to Mars

In this talk, cellular and molecular details on the human and microbial responses to short and long-duration spaceflight will be detailed, which span several NASA, SpaceX, and Axiom missions and provide key lessons for upcoming lunar and Mars missions. Then, recent advances in biotechnology, multi-omics, data modeling, and cross-species genome engineering will be highlighted, which have shown novel means of extremophile adaptation in space and chimeric human cells with increased radioresistance. Together, these tools, methods, and data support an ethical and ambitious, 500-year plan of reengineering biology to enable life on other worlds, and also reveal the best candidate planets for life in new solar systems.

Learning Objectives:

1. List types of sequencing and genomics methods.

2. List several methods for epigenome engineering.

3. Describe the genomic changes that occur in a spacecraft and in astronauts.