Page 216 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

sequencing and identification of the microbes.
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson conducted the
The ability to identify microbes in experiment aboard the space station, with NASA
space could aid in diagnosing and microbiologist and the project’s Principal Investigator
Sarah Wallace and her team watching and guiding
treating astronaut ailments in real her from Houston.
time, as well as assist in identifying Petri plates were touched to various surfaces of the
DNA-based life on other planets. space station as part of regular microbial monitoring.
Working within the MSG about a week later, Whitson
transferred cells from growing bacterial colonies on
those plates into miniature test tubes—something
that had never been done before in space.

many copies of—that DNA, which can then be Once the cells were successfully collected, it was time
sequenced or identified. to isolate the DNA and prepare it for sequencing, which
enabled the identification of the unknown organisms—
The investigation was broken into two parts: the
collection of the microbial samples and amplification another first for space microbiology. A historic weather
event, however, threatened the ground team’s ability
by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), then the
to guide the progress of the experiment.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson performed the Genes in Space-3 investigation aboard the space station
using the miniPCR and MinION, which were developed for previously flown investigations.
Image credit: NASA

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