Petition: SAVE NASA’s GENELAB
SIGN THE PETITION: https://www.change.org/p/save-nasa-s-genelab
Summary
We are urging NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Directorate to reverse the 2025 reductions to the NASA Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) and GeneLab, including the GeneLab Sample Processing Laboratory (SPL). OSDR is NASA’s primary source for understanding space biology, containing a shared library and lab system housing nearly 600 studies across 45 species. Over 1,000 researchers worldwide have produced more than 160 published papers using OSDR data, mostly through volunteer effort, multiplying the return on investment. The cuts also threaten the SPL, which provides the consistent methods needed to compare biological results across missions, and training programs for hundreds of students for careers in space science.
Decades of NASA-funded work is at risk. Restoring funding is essential to protect that investment and keep future astronauts safe.
We, the undersigned, respectfully request that the Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Directorate reverse the 2025 reductions to OSDR and GeneLab and restore all essential components, including the GeneLab Sample Processing Laboratory (SPL).
OSDR represents a critical long-term investment in NASA’s space biology and space health enterprise. It serves as the Library of Alexandria for space biosciences, integrating GeneLab data from the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) and irreplaceable biospecimens housed in the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC). Together, these resources enable rigorous cross-mission analyses and support both fundamental discovery and mission-relevant biomedical risk reduction on earth and in space.
As of 2026, OSDR curated nearly 600 studies and more than 1,000 datasets spanning 45 species and over 80 standardized assay types. Reductions in funding and staffing have already begun to degrade data quality, user support, and long-term data reusability. Without timely intervention, the value of decades of NASA-funded biological research will continue to erode, directly impacting the agency’s ability to derive actionable knowledge.
BPS investments in OSDR enabled the development of the Analysis Working Group (AWG), a global community of more than 1,000 researchers. Since 2018, AWG members have contributed to more than 160 peer-reviewed publications, preprints, and theses. These outputs are generated entirely through volunteer scientific efforts and present substantial advancements in scientific knowledge. AWG analyses directly increase the return on investment of past missions and inform future mission design, and outcomes that depend on OSDR leadership.
Discoveries enabled by OSDR have directly advanced the understanding of spaceflight health risks, including mitochondrial dysfunction, immune dysregulation, kidney pathology, neurological alterations and biomarkers of aging and frailty. Nearly half of global investigations in space biology and space health have utilized OSDR data, reflecting its central role in next-generation analytical approaches.
The GeneLab Sample Processing Laboratory (SPL) is essential to this ecosystem. SPL provides standardized, mission-consistent sample processing using uniform protocols, instrumentation, and expert personnel. This standardization enables valid cross-mission comparisons and high-powered meta-analyses across inherently rare spaceflight datasets. Without SPL, datasets become increasingly fragmented, statistical power is reduced, and the ability to identify systemic biological risks is compromised.
OSDR serves as a primary workforce-development and community-engagement platform for space biology. Training programs, including GeneLab for High Schools, GeneLab for Colleges and Universities, and the AI/ML for Space Biology curriculum have reached hundreds of students and educators, strengthening the pipeline of future contributors to NASA science. Reductions to OSDR disproportionately impact early-career researchers and undermine long-term workforce sustainability.
The OSDR community has demonstrated strong commitment to NASA’s mission. In 2025, AWG members across approximately 40 states coordinated advocacy efforts to support NASA and BPS during anticipated federal funding reductions. The successful modernization of ALSDA data within OSDR demonstrates the program’s capacity to transform legacy datasets into mission-relevant analytical assets. A similar approach is urgently needed for NASA human astronaut data, which remains difficult to locate, access, and reuse. Integration of astronaut data with OSDR’s model-organism datasets is essential for translational interpretation and operational relevance. OSDR’s existing infrastructure, standards, and community adoption position it uniquely to support this future requirement.
At a time of renewed international competition in space exploration, reductions to core scientific infrastructure introduce avoidable risk. Congress has provided a budget capable of sustaining NASA science. We therefore respectfully urge BPS leadership to reaffirm its commitment to open science and to restore funding for the Sample Processing Laboratory, science oversight, data curation and processing, data systems, visualization tools, AWG community support, and training programs.
The 2025 reductions to OSDR have materially exceeded sustainable levels. Restoring this capability is essential to preserving prior mission investments, enabling future discovery, and ensuring NASA’s continued leadership in space biology and space health.
