Spaceomix

Foetal Haemoglobin (HbF) is the primary oxygen carrier in a baby’s blood before birth, helping them get oxygen from the mother. After birth, HbF levels drop, and adult haemoglobin types like HbA take over. But we are learning that HbF could be especially helpful for conditions like thalassaemia and sickle cell disease and might even play a role in protecting blood health during long space missions. Could this little-known haemoglobin type be a future lifesaver in #space? 🤔 Stay tuned to learn more next week! University of Malta NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency SpaceX NASA GeneLab Spaceomix

Congratulations to one our Stellar candidates Maria Vella. Her ongoing passion, consistency in individual and career development, and dedication to being a life-long learner is admirable.

Did you know our blood 🩸 contains different types of haemoglobin proteins, each playing a unique role in oxygen transport? Haemoglobin is what gives red blood cells their power to carry oxygen to EVERY cell in our body. In adults, the main types are Haemoglobin A (HbA), Haemoglobin A2 (HbA2), and a very small amount of foetal haemoglobin (HbF). Each type is key to keeping us healthy and energetic, whether we’re on Earth 🌍 or in #space! Stay tuned as I take you on a journey to test human astronauts' blood samples from crewed missions 🚀 University of Malta NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency SpaceX European Space Agency - ESA NASA GeneLab

Turning Spaceflight Challenges into Healthcare Solutions on Earth At BioAstra, we’re inspired by insights from the recent Nature Magazine publication of the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), led by BioAstra's own Eliah Overbey and Christopher Mason. SOMA’s findings reveal how spaceflight induces physiological stress—like oxidative damage and organ strain—that parallels many chronic health conditions here on Earth. Understanding these effects helps us develop innovative solutions that can make healthcare more resilient in high-stress and remote settings. By leveraging research on how the body copes with space’s unique demands, we aim to bring practical, protective solutions to Earth-based healthcare. These findings underscore our commitment to transforming knowledge from space research into everyday health solutions. https://lnkd.in/gkuNupPX Patricia (Savi) Glowe Brent West Afshin Beheshti Michal Tyra, PhD Ben Glicksberg Sarah Pesce

Turning Spaceflight Challenges into Healthcare Solutions on Earth At BioAstra, we’re inspired by insights from the recent Nature Magazine publication of the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), led by BioAstra's own Eliah Overbey and Christopher Mason. SOMA’s findings reveal how spaceflight induces physiological stress—like oxidative damage and organ strain—that parallels many chronic health conditions here on Earth. Understanding these effects helps us develop innovative solutions that can make healthcare more resilient in high-stress and remote settings. By leveraging research on how the body copes with space’s unique demands, we aim to bring practical, protective solutions to Earth-based healthcare. These findings underscore our commitment to transforming knowledge from space research into everyday health solutions. https://lnkd.in/gkuNupPX Patricia (Savi) Glowe Brent West Afshin Beheshti Michal Tyra, PhD Ben Glicksberg Sarah Pesce

Spatiotemporal expression and control of haemoglobin in space - Abstract : "It is now widely recognised that the environment in space activates a diverse set of genes involved in regulating fundamental cellular pathways. This includes the activation of genes associated with blood homeostasis and erythropoiesis, with a particular emphasis on those involved in globin chain production. Haemoglobin biology provides an intriguing model for studying space omics, as it has been extensively explored at multiple -omic levels, spanning DNA, RNA, and protein analyses, in both experimental and clinical contexts. In this study, we examined the developmental expression of haemoglobin over time and space using a unique suite of multi-omic datasets available on NASA GeneLab, from the NASA Twins Study, the JAXA CFE study, and the Inspiration4 mission. Our findings reveal significant variations in globin gene expression corresponding to the distinct spatiotemporal characteristics of the collected samples. This study sheds light on the dynamic nature of globin gene regulation in response to the space environment and provides valuable insights into the broader implications of space omics research." https://lnkd.in/eEVDWUdy Josef Borg1,12, Conor Loy2,12, JangKeun Kim 2,12, Alfred Buhagiar1 , Christopher Chin 2 , Namita Damle2 , Iwijn De Vlaminck2 , Alex Felice3 , Tammy Liu 4 , Irina Matei 2 , Cem Meydan 2 , Masafumi Muratani 5 , Omary Mzava6 , Eliah Overbey 2 , Krista A. Ryon2 , Scott M. Smith 7 , Braden T. Tierney 2 , Guy Trudel 4 , Sara R. Zwart 7,8, Afshin Beheshti 9,10 , Christopher E. Mason 2,11 & Joseph "Sci" Borg 1 1 Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Msida MSD2080, Malta. 2 Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA. 3 Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, Msida MSD2080, Malta. 4 Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Department of Medicine, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 5 Department of Genome Biology, Institute of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan. 6 Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. 7 Biomedical Research and Environmental Sciences Division, Human Health and Performance Directorate, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA. 8 University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA. 9 Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Space Biosciences Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA. 10 Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA. 11 The WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA. 12 These authors contributed equally: Josef Borg, Conor Loy, JangKeun Kim.

The Maleth program:  Malta's first space mission discoveries on the microbiome of diabetic foot ulcers - Abstract : "The purpose of the Maleth Program, also known as Project Maleth, is Malta's first space program to evaluate human skin tissue microbiome changes in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients afflicted with diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). This was carried out in both ground-based models and spaceflight. The first mission (Maleth I) under this program was carried out to uncover the effects of spaceflight, microgravity and radiation on human skin tissue microbiome samples from six T2DM patients recruited into the study. Each patient human skin tissue sample was split in three, with one section processed immediately for genomic profiling by 16S typing and the rest were processed for longer term ground-control and spaceflight experiments. Ground-control and spaceflight human skin tissue samples were also processed for genomic profiling upon mission re-entry and completion. Maleth I's overall objective was achieved, as human skin tissue samples with their microbiomes travelled to space and back yielding positive results by both standard microbiology techniques and genetic typing using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Preliminary findings of this mission are discussed in light of its innovative approach at DFU microbiome research, and the clinical implications that may emerge from this and other future similar studies." https://lnkd.in/epxNN427 Christine Gatta ∙ Braden T. Tierneyb ∙ Pedro Madrigalc ∙ Christopher E. Masonb,d,e,f ∙ Afshin Beheshtig,h ∙ Anja Telzerowi ∙ Vladimir Benesi ∙ Graziella Zahraj ∙ Jurgen Bonettk ∙ Kevin Cassarl ∙ Joseph "Sci" Borg a,1 a Department of Applied Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Msida MSD, 2080, Malta b Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, 10065, USA c European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, EMBL-EBI, Hinxton CB10 1SD, UK d The HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Institute for Computational Biomedicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA e WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA f The Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA g KBR, Space Biosciences Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 94035, USA h Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA i Genomics Core Facility, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany j Molecular Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases, Department of Pathology, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta k Ministry for Health, Primary HealthCare, Floriana, Malta l Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, Valletta, Malta

Check out some of our #science in #space led by Joseph "Sci" Borg and team

They/Them: how is your week going? Me: