Chris Mason Takes Omics to Space

Broadcast Date: December 4, 2023
Time: 8:00 am PT, 11:00 am ET, 17:00 CET

Chris Mason’s lab at Cornell Medical School uses the latest tools and technologies in genomics to study clinical genetics including cancer, infectious disease, and how patients respond to different therapies. Their focus on omics exists both on Earth, and in space. Several years ago, Dr. Mason was a principal investigator for NASA’s landmark “Twins Study” which revealed key changes that occur to the genome when humans are in space, including the lengthening of telomeres in flight. The study involved the identical Kelly twins: Scott Kelly, an astronaut who spent a year in space and Senator Mark Kelly, who stayed on Earth. Today, with the increased pace of space travel (with about one launch every other day), comes an increase in Mason’s interest in omics and space.

In this GEN Keynote webinar, Mason will describe the growing body of work in this area. He’ll discuss recent advances, for example, the ability to perform DNA sequencing in flight, enabling the development of SOMA (Space Omics and Medical Atlas) tools and the new Aerospace Medicine Biobank, akin to the UK Biobank for space. He’ll also discuss the study of multi-omics profiling, chromatin remodeling, immune response, telomere stress, and the epitranscriptome. This work will increase our understanding of omics here on Earth and build the foundation of enabling genomics on the Moon and Mars.

A live Q&A session will follow the presentation, offering you a chance to pose questions to our expert panelist.