RESUMEN
Spaceflight induces molecular, cellular, and physiological shifts in astronauts and poses myriad biomedical challenges to the human body, which are becoming increasingly relevant as more humans venture into space1-6. Yet, current frameworks for aerospace medicine are nascent and lag far behind advancements in precision medicine on Earth, underscoring the need for rapid development of space medicine databases, tools, and protocols. Here, we present the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), an integrated data and sample repository for clinical, cellular, and multi-omic research profiles from a diverse range of missions, including the NASA Twins Study7, JAXA CFE study8,9, SpaceX Inspiration4 crew10-12, plus Axiom and Polaris. The SOMA resource represents a >10-fold increase in publicly available human space omics data, with matched samples available from the Cornell Aerospace Medicine Biobank. The Atlas includes extensive molecular and physiological profiles encompassing genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiome data sets, which reveal some consistent features across missions, including cytokine shifts, telomere elongation, and gene expression changes, as well as mission-specific molecular responses and links to orthologous, tissue-specific murine data sets. Leveraging the datasets, tools, and resources in SOMA can help accelerate precision aerospace medicine, bringing needed health monitoring, risk mitigation, and countermeasures data for upcoming lunar, Mars, and exploration-class missions.
RESUMEN
As part of a 3-wk intersession workshop funded by a National Science Foundation Expeditions in Computing award, 15 undergraduate students from the City University of New York(1) collaborated on a study aimed at characterizing the voltage dynamics and arrhythmogenic behavior of cardiac cells for a broad range of physiologically relevant conditions using an in silico model. The primary goal of the workshop was to cultivate student interest in computational modeling and analysis of complex systems by introducing them through lectures and laboratory activities to current research in cardiac modeling and by engaging them in a hands-on research experience. The success of the workshop lay in the exposure of the students to active researchers and experts in their fields, the use of hands-on activities to communicate important concepts, active engagement of the students in research, and explanations of the significance of results as the students generated them. The workshop content addressed how spiral waves of electrical activity are initiated in the heart and how different parameter values affect the dynamics of these reentrant waves. Spiral waves are clinically associated with tachycardia, when the waves remain stable, and with fibrillation, when the waves exhibit breakup. All in silico experiments were conducted by simulating a mathematical model of cardiac cells on graphics processing units instead of the standard central processing units of desktop computers. This approach decreased the run time for each simulation to almost real time, thereby allowing the students to quickly analyze and characterize the simulated arrhythmias. Results from these simulations, as well as some of the background and methodology taught during the workshop, is presented in this article along with the programming code and the explanations of simulation results in an effort to allow other teachers and students to perform their own demonstrations, simulations, and studies.
