Events & Opportunities
 NASA Post-doctoral Fellowship Program Opportunities
Rodent Behavior and Cognition: From Earth Simulation to Spaceflight - work with NASA Scientists Joshua S. Alwood, Ph.D. and April E. Ronca, Ph.D. at Ames Research Center.
Genetic Improvement of in-space Microbial Bioproduction - work with Mark Settles, Ph.D. at Ames Research Center.
The following NPP Fellowships are for working with scientist Kasthuri Venkateswaran, Ph.D. of Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Microbial Diversity of Spacecraft and Associated Surfaces
Influence of Microgravity in the Production of Secondary Metabolites
Environmental Microbiome of the International Space Station - Omics Analyses
The deadline to apply for these NPP Fellowships is November 1, 2023 6:00:59 PM Eastern Time.
Student Internships
Space Life Sciences Training Program - Summer 2024 Internships
Applications opening soon! Sign-up to be on the SLSTP mailing list by sending an email to arc-slstp@mail.nasa.gov. Be the first to know when the 2024 summer applications go live.
Get Involved - Citizen Science
Growing Beyond Earth student research is a classroom-based citizen science project operated in partnership with NASA, designed to advance NASA research on growing plants in space. It includes a series of plant experiments conducted by students in a Fairchild-designed plant habitat similar to the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) on the International Space Station. If you are interested in being a student researcher for the 2023 - 2024 year send a message to GBE@fairchildgarden.org to get the process started.
The annual meeting of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) will be in Washington DC November 14 - 18, 2023. Come and meet our NASA Space Biology scientific community and learn about the exciting new discoveries and the future of life sciences research in space. Register here.
|
|
NASA Selects Two Space Biology Research Studies That Will Lead to a Better Understanding of What It Takes to Enable Organisms to Thrive in Deep Space Beyond Low Earth Orbit
 One selected study will be executed as a flight experiment and will work to characterize the impact that deep space stressors have on multiple generations of fruit flies (Drosophila). This investigation will determine how the stressors affect this organism at the cellular level, as well as characterize how cellular changes impact overall health by studying a collection of organ systems such as the brain, heart, and muscle. Janani Iyer, Ph.D. (photo, at left) will be the Principal Investigator for this mission. While it is the program’s intention that this selected project will fly as a payload on the Orion Space Capsule, NASA is still in the process of making an official determination of what science experiments can be accommodated on the Artemis II mission for the Space Biology Program.
In the event that this study cannot be flown on the Orion Spacecraft, it will instead be manifested to fly on the International Space Station.
 The other selected study will be conducted on the ground to develop the capability to culture and fix the model organism worm C. elegans in an automated fashion for a future flight study beyond LEO. The study will also characterize how ionizing radiation like the types encountered during deep space exploration impact the molecular and cellular biology of this organism, while also exploring ways to mitigate the adverse effects resulting from radiation exposure. Timothy Hammond, Ph.D. (photo, at left) will be the Principal Investigator for this study.
|
|
 The Decadal Survey is Available for Download
The Thriving in Space: Ensuring the Future of Biological and Physical Sciences Research: A Decadal Survey for 2023-2032
"Thriving in Space provides a roadmap for increasing national investment in biological and physical science research, from experiments to infrastructure to education. This report identifies key scientific questions, priorities, and ambitious research campaigns that will enable human space exploration and transform our understanding of how the universe works."
COMING SOON: The Biological and Physical Sciences Division will be hosting a Decadal Survey virtual "Town Hall" in early 2024. Look for the details in the November issue of the Space Biology Science Digest, on Facebook, or on X (formerly known as Twitter) @NASASpaceSci.
|
|
 New Discoveries
Spaceflight-induced gene expression profiles in the mouse brain are attenuated by treatment with the antioxidant BuOE
 A new study of the brains of mice flown during the Rodent Research-18 mission used spatially resolved transcriptional profiling to identify which genes in each of the four brain regions (cortex (CT), frontal cortex (FCT), hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG), Cornu Ammonis 1 (CA)) were differentially expressed.
Both common and region-specific transcriptomic responses were found.
Metabolic pathways and those sensitive to oxidative stress were enriched in the four brain regions due to spaceflight. Treatment with BuOE, a superoxide dismutase mimic, reduced the transcriptomic effects of spaceflight at many genes, suggesting that this compound may reduce oxidative stress-induced brain damage caused by the spaceflight environment.
This article is available online.
  This research was funded by NASA Space Biology grants to Drs. Xaio Wen Mao and Michael Pecaut, both of Loma Linda University.
Image: A representative image of the brain regions profiled by spatially resolved transcriptional profiling from this study.
|
|
 Follow NASA Space Science on X! (formerly known as Twitter)
@NASASpaceSci |
|
|
 Spaceflight News
SpaceX-29 CRS Will Carry Rodent Research-20 Experiment to ISS
Female Reproductive Health: Space Flight Induced Ovarian and Estrogen Signaling Dysfunction, Adaptation, and Recovery
Lane Christenson, Ph.D. of the University of Kansas Medical School is the Principal Investigator for the RR-20 mission. |
This ISS experiment is currently scheduled to launch on November 1, 2023. Principal Investigator Lane Christenson, Ph.D. of the University of Kansas Medical Center will be studying the following objectives;
- Forty female (C57BL/6J) mice will launch to the space station at ~12 weeks of age. After docking, the animals will be transferred to Rodent Research Habitats on the ISS. Twenty mice remain on the space station for at least 30 days before returning to Earth, and 20 mice remain on-orbit for 48-60 days.
- The central hypothesis of this study is that spaceflight, directly or indirectly, causes ovarian dysfunction that leads to infertility in adult female mice.
- This study also addresses whether bone loss observed in female mice during spaceflight is associated with altered estrogen signaling in bone tissue.
- Growth, development, and key behaviors of offspring from the spaceflight females will be monitored from birth through weaning.
- This spaceflight experiment and post-recovery investigation will provide critical foundational data examining the long-term effects of spaceflight on the female reproductive system and may provide a better understanding of the impact spaceflight on female astronaut health.
|
|
 If you're on Facebook you can keep up with NASA Space Biology by following us there.
Find us at Facebook.com/spacebiology.
|
|
In the Spotlight
 How Do Microbes Deal with Space?
Jessica Lee, Ph.D. is a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley who studies how microbial life responds to the spaceflight environment. She delivered a fantastic and engaging presentation discussing how microbes deal with space at the American Society for Microbiology annual meeting June 15 - 19, 2023.
Watch the video here
|
|
GeneLab Offers Online Open Science Educator Resources
 GeneLab has created educational resources that are publicly available to help drive research and invite educators along with their students at various skill levels to perform real RNAseq analysis. Open science enables accessibility to an audience that might otherwise not have their own methods of data acquisition through wet labs or experimentation yet have talents or interests in the field. For young scientists, these also provide early career exploration opportunities to allow for effective professional preparation.
For more information visit Open Science Educator Resources.
|
|
|
Biospecimen Sharing Program
Share | Research | Discover
 Help NASA maximize the scientific return from biological spaceflight investigations and encourage broader participation of the research community in space biology-related research. Non-human biospecimens are dissected, collected, and preserved by the Space Biology Biospecimen Sharing Program (BSP) team at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). These biospecimens and associated Metadata are made available through NASA’s Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC). They are searchable and available for request on the Life Sciences Data Archive public website. Flight and ground control biospecimens are available from COSMOS, NASA’s space shuttle missions, and International Space Station (ISS) investigations. What will your discoveries unfold?
For more information on BSP, please click here.
Check out NBISC to learn more about NBISC and how to request these biospecimens.
|
|
|
|
