UC San Diego graduate Kate Rubins became the first person to sequence DNA in microgravity over the weekend during experiments that the astronaut conducted aboard the International Space Station.
Rubins, who earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology at UCSD, used a commercially available machine to sequence mouse, virus and bacteria DNA, says NASA.
The experiment represents growing efforts to conduct biomedical research on space station.
"With a way to sequence DNA in space, astronauts could diagnose an illness, or identify microbes growing in the International Space Station and determine whether or not they represent a health threat," NASA added in a statement.
"A space-based DNA sequencer would be an important tool to help protect astronaut health during long duration missions on the journey to Mars, and future explorers could also potentially use the technology to identify DNA-based life forms beyond Earth."
Rubins told the Union-Tribune during a ground-to-space interview on August 4th that, " We actually have a great amount of microbiology research up here which includes viruses and all bacterial organisms -- yeast, fungi. We have some individual experiments; we’ll look in cannisters that the astronauts can activate.
"We’re also studying the station as a whole. We’re trying to understand the microbiological environment of space station -- bacteria, viruses.
"We normally carry bacteria with us all the time. We would expect that there is a lot of bacteria up here. It’s not a sterile environment. It’s a very nice and clean environment. Jeff and I try to keep it ship-shape along with our crewmate Takuya Onishi, along with our Russian cosmonauts. But there are some interesting places to take a look at the microbiome of the space station."