BIOENGINEERING FOR SPACE (NYAS), Dec 10, 2020, virtual, 11:15 am – 4:40 pm ET

The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) will hold a virtual symposium on December 10, 2020 from 11:15 am-4:40 pm ET on “Bioengineering for Space.”

The organizers provide this information:

This symposium will present research on gene editing and synthetic biology that may be used to overcome human limitations during long term spaceflight. The keynote speaker will be Anousheh Ansari of the XPRIZE Foundation.

Leading scientists will be speaking on topics that include:

• Research on ways to discern the molecular basis of changes in the human body during long-term human space travel, including genetic, epigenetic, transcriptional, and metagenomic changes. (Christopher Mason, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine)
• Efforts in synthetic biology to re-introduce missing biosynthetic pathways into a mammalian genome to restore the capacity to create essential amino acids. Humans have lost—through the course of evolution—the ability to manufacture in their bodies nine essential amino acids. This research may point to ways to restore that ability, which may prove important to human health during interplanetary space voyages. (Harris Wang, PhD, Columbia University Medical Center)
• Microbiology of the Built Environment, including research on biological samples taken to and from the International Space Station. The research shows how bacteria and fungi taken into space can become more dangerous than their counterparts on Earth. (Jack Gilbert, PhD, University of California San Diego)
• Research on how to grow vegetables and other plants in space, which will be essential for future space travel. (Gioia Massa, PhD, NASA)

The symposium will also feature panel discussions on questions of bio-ethics raised by space research and space travel. Will it be ethical to change the human genome to increase resistance to radiation and other hazards in space? Who gets to make decisions about space travel, acceptable risk, and the privatization of space? What responsibilities do scientists and astronauts have to avoid altering the genetic environment of lands we may seek to inhabit?

Speakers will also include: Martine Rothblatt, PhD, JD, MBA, United Therapeutics; Mark Weyland, MS,  NASA; R. Alta Charo, JD, University of Wisconsin Law School; Eliza Strickland, IEEE Spectrum; and John Rummel, PhD, Friday Harbor Partners, LLC.

More information is on the event’s website.