The GENESTAR manual for biospecimen collection biobanking and omics data generation from commercial space missions
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.
Authors
- Jennifer E. Posey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4814-6765)
- Susan Griffin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2188-8400)
- Aparna Krishnavajhala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9327-5470)
- Viktoriya Korchina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9069-8806)
- Marie‐Claude Gingras (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2570-6360)
- Donna M. Muzny (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3055-0359)
- Sravya Bhamidipati (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4609-8627)
- Emmanuel Urquieta
- J Zaki Mohammed
- HarshaVardhan Doddapaneni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2433-633X)
- Hannah Moreno
- Richard A. Gibbs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1356-5698)
- Jimmy Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5250-9800)
- Michał M. Masternak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8483-930X)
- Mullai Murugan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9401-2613)
- Hsu Chao
- Dilrukshi Bandaranaike
- Yi Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0100-5359)
Institutions
- University of Central Florida (US)
- Poznan University of Medical Sciences (PL)
- National Space Biomedical Research Institute (US)
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- Axiom (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Microgravity
- Published
- 2025-05-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-025-00472-1
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Spaceflight effects on biology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.16
Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration