The GENESTAR manual for biospecimen collection biobanking and omics data generation from commercial space missions

• Published in: NPJ microgravity Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 16 - 13
• Main Authors: Krishnavajhala, Aparna, Gingras, Marie-Claude, Urquieta, Emmanuel, Chao, Hsu, Bandaranaike, Dilrukshi, Chen, Yi, Bhamidipati, Sravya, Korchina, Viktoriya, Griffin, S. Michelle, Masternak, Michal M., Moreno, Hannah, Mohammed, Javid, Murugan, Mullai, Posey, Jennifer E., Wu, Jimmy H., Muzny, Donna, Gibbs, Richard A., Doddapaneni, Harsha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 14.05.2025; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/1647; 692/4017; Aerospace medicine; Applied Microbiology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Classical and Continuum Physics; Genomics; Immunology; Life Sciences; Space exploration; Space Exploration and Astronautics; Space flight; Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
• ISSN: 2373-8065; 2373-8065
• DOI: 10.1038/s41526-025-00472-1

The surge in commercial and civilian spaceflight enables the systematic and longitudinal, large-scale biospecimen collection to understand the prospective effects of space travel on human health. The Genomics and Space Medicine (Space Omics) project at BCM-HGSC involves a comprehensive biospecimen collection plan from commercial/private space flight participants. The manuscript addresses the critical gaps in the biospecimen collection process including details of the informed consent process, a provision for subjects to obtain custom CLIA-WGS reports, a data dictionary and a LIMS enabled biobank. The manuscript also discusses the biospecimens collection, processing methodologies and nucleic acid suitability for Omics data generation. Results from Axiom-2 mission where, 339 biospecimens were collected using ‘Genomic Evaluation of Space Travel and Research (GENESTAR)’ manual, at two different sites, showed that 98% of the blood samples and 91.6% of the non-blood samples passed the QC requirements for Omics assays, underscoring the reliability and effectiveness of the GENESTAR manual.