Fundamental Biological Features of Spaceflight: Advancing the Field to Enable Deep-Space Exploration

Ebrahim Afshinnekoo, Ryan T. Scott, Matthew J. MacKay, Eloise Pariset, Egle Cekanaviciute, Richard Barker, Simon Gilroy, Duane Hassane, Scott M. Smith, Sara R. Zwart, Mayra Nelman-Gonzalez, Brian E. Crucian, Sergey A. Ponomarev, Oleg I. Orlov, Dai Shiba, Masafumi Muratani, Masayuki Yamamoto, Stephanie E. Richards, Parag A. Vaishampayan, Cem MeydanJonathan Foox, Jacqueline Myrrhe, Eric Istasse, Nitin Singh, Kasthuri Venkateswaran, Jessica A. Keune, Hami E. Ray, Mathias Basner, Jack Miller, Martha Hotz Vitaterna, Deanne M. Taylor, Douglas Wallace, Kathleen Rubins, Susan M. Bailey*, Peter Grabham, Sylvain V. Costes, Christopher E. Mason, Afshin Beheshti

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

271 Scopus citations

Abstract

An international group of spaceflight researchers detail how spaceflight affects human biology from the molecular to physiological level and identify key challenges for making space exploration compatible with human health.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1162-1184
Number of pages23
JournalCell
Volume183
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 25 2020

Funding

Special thanks to Drs. Craig Kundrot and Thomas Zurbuchen for their valuable input regarding this manuscript. Thanks also to the various stakeholders in providing guidance and compiling the Data and Biospecimens table and box: Nicholas Meyer of the NASA Human Research Program's Space Radiation Element at NASA JSC; Rebecca Klotz from the NASA Space Biology Biospecimen Sharing Program at NASA ARC; Danielle Lopez, Martha del Alto, and Alison French from the NASA Ames Life Sciences Data Archive; Thomas Bristow of the Exobiology Branch, Space Science & Astrobiology Division at NASA ARC; and Barbara Lafuente of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA. Thanks also to Graham Mackintosh, Artificial Intelligence Consultant at NASA ARC; Christopher Dateo of Exobiology Branch, Space Science & Astrobiology Division at ARC; and Melissa Kirven-Brooks of Astrobiology at ARC. Lastly, thank you to the various organizations at NASA for their overall support: Space Biology Program, Science Mission Directorate, Biological and Physical Sciences Division; Human Research Program, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate; the GeneLab team at ARC; the XSEDE Supercomputing Center and the Scientific Computing Unit (SCU) at WCM; and the LSDA and LSAH teams at JSC. Support was provided by NASA: NNX14AH51G (all Twins Study principal investigators [PIs]; NNX14AB02G and 80NSSC19K0434 (S.M.B.); NNX14AH50G, NNX17AB26G, and 19_HCBPSR_2-0067. Support was also provided by the NIH (R01CA249054, R01AI151059, and R01MH117406 to C.E.M.). A.B. was supported by NASA grant 16-ROSBFP_GL-0005: NNH16ZTT001N-FG Appendix G: Solicitation of Proposals for Flight and Ground Space Biology Research (Award Number: 80NSSC19K0883) and the Translational Research Institute for Space Health through NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AO69A (T-0404). S.P. and O.O. were supported by the program of fundamental research (themes 64.1; 65.1) of the IBMP. S.V.C. and E.C. are funded by NASA Human Research Program grants NNJ16HP24I (S.V.C.) and 80JSC018N001 (E.C.) and E.P. by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health through NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AO69A. P.G. is funded by Human Research Program grant 80NSS18K1492. Special thanks to Drs. Craig Kundrot and Thomas Zurbuchen for their valuable input regarding this manuscript. Thanks also to the various stakeholders in providing guidance and compiling the Data and Biospecimens table and box: Nicholas Meyer of the NASA Human Research Program\u2019s Space Radiation Element at NASA JSC; Rebecca Klotz from the NASA Space Biology Biospecimen Sharing Program at NASA ARC; Danielle Lopez, Martha del Alto, and Alison French from the NASA Ames Life Sciences Data Archive; Thomas Bristow of the Exobiology Branch, Space Science & Astrobiology Division at NASA ARC; and Barbara Lafuente of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA. Thanks also to Graham Mackintosh, Artificial Intelligence Consultant at NASA ARC; Christopher Dateo of Exobiology Branch, Space Science & Astrobiology Division at ARC; and Melissa Kirven-Brooks of Astrobiology at ARC. Lastly, thank you to the various organizations at NASA for their overall support: Space Biology Program, Science Mission Directorate, Biological and Physical Sciences Division; Human Research Program, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate; the GeneLab team at ARC; the XSEDE Supercomputing Center and the Scientific Computing Unit (SCU) at WCM; and the LSDA and LSAH teams at JSC. Support was provided by NASA : NNX14AH51G (all Twins Study principal investigators [PIs]; NNX14AB02G and 80NSSC19K0434 (S.M.B.); NNX14AH50G , NNX17AB26G , and 19_HCBPSR_2-0067 . Support was also provided by the NIH ( R01CA249054 , R01AI151059 , and R01MH117406 to C.E.M.). A.B. was supported by NASA grant 16-ROSBFP_GL-0005 : NNH16ZTT001N-FG Appendix G : Solicitation of Proposals for Flight and Ground Space Biology Research (Award Number: 80NSSC19K0883 ) and the Translational Research Institute for Space Health through NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AO69A (T-0404). S.P. and O.O. were supported by the program of fundamental research (themes 64.1; 65.1) of the IBMP. S.V.C. and E.C. are funded by NASA Human Research Program grants NNJ16HP24I (S.V.C.) and 80JSC018N001 (E.C.) and E.P. by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health through NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AO69A . P.G. is funded by Human Research Program grant 80NSS18K1492 .

Keywords

  • aerospace medicine
  • DNA damage
  • epigenetic
  • microbiome
  • mitochondria
  • multi-omics
  • oxidative stress
  • space biology
  • spaceflight
  • telomere

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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