USC and JPL researchers will send specimens of Aspergillus nidulans to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX CRS-8 mission. The organism is known to produce osteoporosis drugs, which is very important from an astronaut’s perspective because we know that in space travel, astronauts experience bone loss.” Space specimen
“We’ve done extensive genetic analysis of this fungus and found that it could potentially produce 40 different types of drugs. “The high-radiation, microgravity environment in space could prompt Aspergillus nidulans to produce molecules it doesn’t create in Earth’s less stressful conditions,” said Wang, who heads the USC-JPL collaborative study. The stressful environment of the International Space Station (ISS) could trigger changes in physiological responses (such as gene expression) and metabolism of a well-studied fungus called Aspergillus nidulans, said Clay Wang, a professor of pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences and chemistry at the USC School of Pharmacy and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Examples of secondary metabolites include the antibiotic penicillin and the cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin. For further information, please contact the cited source.Researchers at USC and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory say they will be the first team in the world to launch fungi into space for the purpose of potentially developing new medicine for use both in space and on Earth.Ĭertain types of fungi produce very important molecules called secondary metabolites that are not essential for their growth or reproduction but can be used to make beneficial pharmaceuticals. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. This article has been republished from materials provided by Genes in Space. This study represents the first demonstration of genetic modification of living organisms in space, a crucial milestone in the development of complete molecular biology workflows on orbit. NASA microbiologists Sarah Wallace and Sarah Stahl helped the team develop their idea and ready their experiment for spaceflight, and astronauts Christina Koch and Nick Hague executed the experiment aboard the ISS.ĬRISPR/Cas9 joins a growing portfolio of molecular biology techniques available on the ISS National Lab, an expansion due in part to the multi-year collaboration between NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the Genes in Space program. The study was designed by David Li, Aarthi Vijayakumar, Rebecca Li, and Michelle Sung, the team of students that won the 2018 Genes in Space contest while attending Mounds View High School and Woodbury High School in Minnesota. This Genes in Space study is the fruit of a multi-center collaboration between scientists and engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, miniPCR Bio, and Boeing. Understanding how DNA repair mechanisms function in space will support the development of better safeguards for space explorers. Though cells have means of correcting DNA damage, errors in the repair process can lead to negative health consequences including cancer. The CRISPR-induced DNA lesions are intended to mimic genetic damage caused by cosmic radiation, a serious risk facing space travelers. This investigation was co-led by student winners of the 2018 Genes in Space national science competition co-founded by Boeing and miniPCR Bio. Molecular changes left behind as yeast repair these breaks will provide clues about how cells repair their DNA in space. The gene editing technique was deployed on the International Space Station (ISS) to induce targeted breaks in the yeast genome. For the first time, astronauts have used CRISPR/Cas9 technology to edit DNA in space.
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