Advancing Health on Earth and in Space with Prof. Chris Mason

Описание: In this episode, we sit down with Prof. Chris Mason (Weill Cornell Medicine, MetaSUB, NASA Twins Study) to explore how genomics and synthetic biology are shaping the future of human health on Earth and beyond. We dive into his groundbreaking work on the NASA Twins Study, mapping the human virome and city microbiomes, and building technologies for interplanetary healthcare. We also talk about ethics in genome editing, the fight against gene patents, and Mason’s bold 500-year plan for life beyond Earth.

What you’ll learn:
• The moment that sparked Mason’s lifelong fascination with genetics
• Key findings from the NASA Twins Study (telomeres, gene expression, microbiome shifts)
• The Human Virome Project and why benign viruses matter
• Swabbing subway systems with MetaSUB and microbial fingerprints of cities
• BioAstra: healthcare innovation for astronauts and space missions
• Why gene patents threatened scientific freedom – and how the Supreme Court changed that
• The ethics of editing human genomes: the “unmet medical need” test
• Chris Mason’s 500-year roadmap for making humanity an interplanetary species

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Hosted by Misha Bagirov & Denise Lemanczyk, MSP students at Maastricht University.
🔗 Bioastra: https://bioastra.org/
🔗 The Next 500 Years: https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/512...
🔗 MetaSUB: https://metasub.org/about/
🔗 Nurture genomics: https://nurturegenomics.com/

#space #spacebiology #nasa #genomesequencing #syntheticbiology