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Establishment of an open biomedical database for commercial spaceflight

Nature Medicine volume 28, pages 611–612 (2022)Cite this article

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To the Editor—We read with interest the editorial entitled “Open science in space”1 published in the September 2021 issue of Nature Medicine. Recently, the world has watched multiple civilians going into space and breaking multiple records: the youngest and oldest humans who have flown into space, and the first cancer survivor and prosthetic patient. This new era of commercial spaceflight ushers in a diverse set of space explorers who are more representative of a global population than their predecessors.

Space induces physiological changes that enable new insights to be obtained about questions such as the regulation of cerebral spinal fluid, plasma volume, blood pressure, vascular compliance and bone and muscle homeostasis2. The space dataset is unique, as it comprises a highly detailed analysis of healthy, normal people responding to the unusual stressors of spaceflight. Insights gained are already informing clinical care on Earth. Physicians engaged with the space program have implemented protocols developed for astronauts for patients with balance disorders or postural orthostatic intolerance syndrome.

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References

  1. Anonymous. Nat. Med. 27, 1485 (2021).

  2. Demontis, G. C. et al. Front. Physiol. 8, 547 (2017).

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  3. Pavez Lorie, E. et al. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 9, 739747 (2021).

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Acknowledgements

All authors were supported by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health through NASA NNX16AO69A.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Space Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Emmanuel Urquieta, Jimmy Wu, James Hury & Dorit Donoviel

  2. Translational Research Institute for Space Health, Houston, TX, USA

    Emmanuel Urquieta, Jimmy Wu, James Hury & Dorit Donoviel

Authors
  1. Emmanuel Urquieta
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  2. Jimmy Wu
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  3. James Hury
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  4. Dorit Donoviel
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the manuscript’s conception, material preparation and design. The first draft of the manuscript was written by E.U., and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Emmanuel Urquieta.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Urquieta, E., Wu, J., Hury, J. et al. Establishment of an open biomedical database for commercial spaceflight. Nat Med 28, 611–612 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01761-y

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