NEW HAVEN - This weekend Yale freshman Isabel Jiang watched a livestream of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission heading to the International Space Station National Laboratory.
But for her it wasn't just an ordinary launch because nestled among the cargo was her experiment on DNA and rapid diagnostics.
"It still feels surreal that it's finally happening, and I'm happy it landed safely," Jiang said. "It was a huge team effort, and so many people helped make this possible, so I'm feeling extremely grateful for everyone involved, too. I can't believe my research is actually in space, and I'm excited to see the next steps and watch as the experiment is conducted later this week."
Jiang sent her project into orbit as part of the Genes in Space program, a national competition that challenges seventh to 12th-grade students to devise a biotechnology experiment that could impact space exploration, said Marc Bliss, the program lead.
Started in 2015, the contest is a collaboration between miniPCR bio and Boeing. Bliss said miniPCR bio makes the equipment for ISS and smaller, portable biotech equipment for teachers and students.
He said they started partnering with Boeing to enable molecular biology research on the ISS. Since then, the ISS National Lab and New England Biolabs have joined as sponsors.
"Great thing about space science is we are going into it with the assumption that it will work like it does on Earth, but we really don't know until we validate it," Bliss said. "If it works or if it doesn't, we have really useful information that we can use for future research as well."
For the contest, applicants start with a broad idea or question they would like to answer around space travel and deep space exploration, which is narrowed down to 30 semifinalists, who submit video proposals.
Of them, five finalists are selected who then receive mentoring from Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists. Bliss said the student mentors work together to develop the experiment logically with the physical constraints of space and the ISS. The finalists then present their final idea to a panel of judges at the ISS Research and Development Conference.
After being cleared by NASA scientists, the winning experiment is launched to the ISS to be conducted by the astronauts living and working in the lab. The winner also participates in Space Biology Camp to prepare for the experiment on space travel.
Although only one project is sent to space, Bliss said the goal of the competition is to foster a love for the scientific method and process through space exploration.
"The goal is to expand students' interest in STEM even though we're aware that the opportunity of being a winner, like Isabel, is this amazing prize, we want to make sure that it's worth it for all of these students and teachers," Bliss said.
Originally from California, Jiang first learned about the program through her STEM club in high school in 2021. Although she had no experience with space biology, she applied to the program with a friend and was named a semifinalist. They were also named one of 2022's honorable mentions.
Jiang decided to reapply in 2023, even though her friend had graduated. According to a press release, her experiment was selected from a pool of 820 ideas from 1,117 students.
"It still doesn't really feel quite real to me...two or three years ago, I never would have believed that I would be in this position," she said. "It's just super awesome to be able to have this opportunity to, as a high school student, to be able to make a mark on the field of space biology, and set the field or the foundation for other people to build on my experiment."
As a finalist, Jiang said she worked with Harvard postdoctoral fellow Aleks Radakovic to finalize a presentation and win. Jiang continued to work with Radakovic after winning, along with other scientists from miniPCR and NASA to turn the proposal into an actual experiment for the ISS. This included a visit to the Johnson Space Center and Boeing headquarters.
The experiment arrived safely on Sunday on the ISS with a two-person crew on NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission launch. They are joining the station's Expedition 72 for a five-month stay in the lab to help conduct more than 200 scientific investigations, including Jiang's.
Jiang said her goal is to see if nucleic acid sequence-based amplification, also known as NASBA, can quickly and reliably detect and study LINE1 RNA while in space.
About 17 percent of DNA is made up of LINE1, a type of retrotransposon, or DNA fragment, known as "jumping genes," Jiang said. She said retrotransposon is a genetic element that can "copy and paste" itself through the genome when activated, which can be dangerous.
Jiang said retrotransposons can jump into a tumor suppressing gene, blocking its function and making someone more susceptible to cancer. This copy and paste can also cause neuropsychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.
On Earth, Jiang said retrotransposons are not "jumping all over the place" since our bodies can naturally maintain them. She said previous studies showed when astronauts go into space though, the exposure to microgravity and radiation can actually activate the genetic element's activity and produce specific RNA sequences that the NASBA can detect.
According to the study summary, understanding the behavior of retrotransposons in microgravity may shed light on the genetic risks, including cancer, from space travel and support the development of ways to protect astronauts during missions.
Jiang said she hopes they can use the research to implement more advanced studies on the retrotransposons and how it can be applied for rapid diagnostics.
It may take some time before Jiang hears back on the experiment. In the meantime, she is just kicking off her time at Yale, studying molecular, cellular and developmental biology.
"I'm hopeful that my validation of NASDAQ can be used to set a foundation for future Genes in Space finalists to be able to dream of something even more crazy and even more advanced," she said.