NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,220 9 October 2026 (Space Life Science Research Results)

The abstract in PubMed or at the publisher’s site is linked when available and will open in a new window.

Papers deriving from NASA support:

1. Benedetti S, Štupica H, Zuccotti GV, Weissig V, Marotta D, Pappone C, Tull A, Rubins KH, Beheshti A, Mason CE, Ferraro S.HiPSC and organoid models in space for investigating severe pediatric metabolic and congenital disorders.Precision Clinical Medicine. 2026 Sep 29. Review. Online ahead of print.PI: C.E. MasonNote: This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 6.4
   
   Funding: “C.E.M. thanks the WorldQuant and GI Research Foundation, NASA (grant Nos. 80NSSC22K0254, 80NSSC23K0832, 80NSSC25K7731), the National Institutes of Health (grant Nos. R01ES032638 and U54AG089334).”
2. Fackrell LE, Palmer AG, Loureiro R, Schroeder PA, Simpson AC, Cheek D, Taylor M, Murphy H, Long-Fox JM, Singh NK, Venkateswaran KJ, Mills HJ, Holzhaus OG, Lynch K.What lives in regolith simulants and why it matters for biological in-situ resource utilization research.Soil Sci Soc Am J. 2026 Jul 28;90(4):e70299.Note: From the abstract: “Regolith simulants are an essential tool for research in space biology, but criteria and protocols are limited for selecting and utilizing simulants in biological research. One critical issue regarding this is a poor understanding of existing simulant microbiomes. Here, we present an initial evaluation of the microbiome size and composition of lunar and Martian regolith simulants, the effectiveness of and alterations caused by sterilization, and organic removal and test methods for improving DNA extraction from simulant materials.”
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 2.6
   
   Funding: “National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity; NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity, Grant/Award Number: NASA Cooperative Agreement 80NSSC23K1173; National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Numbers: 2223829, 2431238, EFRI ELiS /2223829; Planetary Society; NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), Grant/Award Number: NASA Cooperative Agreement 80NSSSC19M0124; National Aeronautics and Space Administration Postdoctoral Program.”
3. Davis KAT, Rice KC.Comparison of Streptococcus mutans growth-phase-dependent transcriptome changes in two different simulated microgravity models.Microbiology (Reading). 2026 Oct 5;172(10):001776.PI: K.C. RiceNote: From the abstract: “Streptococcus mutans is a cariogenic member of human dental plaque biofilm. Our previous study of S. mutans early stationary-phase rotary cell culture system (RCCS) cultures revealed significant transcriptome changes under low-shear modelled microgravity (LSMMG) compared to normal gravity (NG), as well as an altered cell clumping phenotype. In this current study, S. mutans mid-exponential phase and late-exponential phase cultures were compared using the RCCS (LSMMG and NG orientations) as well as simulated microgravity (‘0 g’) using a random positioning machine (0 g RPM).” This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 4.3
   
   Funding: “This study was funded by NASA grant 80NSSC18K1463 (K.C.R.).”
4. Katsouleas K, Hammel JH, Gerecht S.Increasing complexity in vascular microphysiological systems: Considerations and advances for disease modeling.Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2026 Sep 27;14:1927687. Review.PI: S. GerechtNote: This article is part of Research Topic “Advancing Disease Modeling and Therapy with Organoids and Organ-on-a-Chip” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/69760/advancing-disease-modeling-and-therapy-with-organoids-and-organ-on-a-chip) and may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 3.5
   
   Funding: “The author(s) declared that financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. Recent work cited from our laboratory was supported by NIH EY035853, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Grant/Award Number: FA9550-20-1-0356, and by SNT0101 from the Translational Research Institute through NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AO69A. JHH was supported by NIH K12 DK100024.”
5. McHill AW, St Hilaire MA, Sano A, Sullivan JP, Qadri S, Taylor S, Barger LK, Phillips AJK, Flynn-Evans EE, O’Brien C, Lockley SW, Czeisler CA, Klerman EB.Required components of a sleep-wake online daily diary for accurate and efficient human research.npj Biol Timing Sleep. 2026 Sep 29;3(1):45.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: Not available for this journal
   
   Funding: E.E. Flynn-Evans is affiliated with NASA Ames Research Center.
6. Spennati G, Vo N, Regier MC, Ward HH, Das V, Karihaloo A, Freedman BS.Elevated glucose in kidney organoids induces tissue-intrinsic inflammation driving epithelial detachment.Stem Cell Reports. 2026 Sep 17. Online ahead of print.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 5.6
   
   Funding: “Studies were supported by a Novo Nordisk Research Award (BSF; UW), NASA Contract 80ARC023CA001 (B.S.F.; UW & UM), Department of Defense Award W81XWH2110007 (B.S.F.; UW), NIH Awards: U01DK127553 (B.S.F.; UW), UH3TR003288 (B.S.F.; UW), UC2DK126006 (B.S.F.; UW), U2CTR004867 (B.S.F.; UW & UM), U01AI176460 (B.S.F.; UW & UM), and U54DK144864 (B.S.F.; UW & UM); UW Institute for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Genomics Award (B.S.F. at UW) and Fellowship (G.S.; UW), and a UW Division of Nephrology Small Grants Award (G.S.; UW).”
7. Strickland HF, Jacobson T, Smith G, Voiniciuc C, Schuerger AC, Paul AL, Ferl R.Hypobaric resilience of matrix polysaccharide biosynthesis in plants.Plant Direct. 2026 Oct 4;10(10):e70190.PI: A.L. PaulNote: From the abstract: “Space habitats and transit vehicle interiors are proposed to operate at less than one Earth atmosphere (hypobaria) to minimize engineering costs in space-based bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS). Understanding how plants are affected by lower-pressure spaceflight environments and associated stressors will be vital for their use in life support within BLSS habitats. Whereas much is known about plant physiology in hypobaria, including the differential expression of genes involved in cell wall metabolism, little is known about the effects of hypobaria on plant cell wall matrix polysaccharide composition. The current study characterized the cell wall polysaccharide compositions of two Arabidopsis ecotypes and two mutants (sweet11 and pdc1) affecting hypobaria-responsive genes.” This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 45.1
   
   Funding: “This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC22K0214) and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Research Capacity Fund (7004470).”
8. Walker VE, Walker DM, Dobrovolsky VN, Lutze-Mann L.Trp53 deficiency increases the frequency of Hprt mutant T lymphocytes following high-LET iron particle irradiation of mice.Environ Mol Mutagen. 2026 Oct 7;67(8-9):e70084.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 2.7
   
   Funding: “This study was supported by NASA Grant #NAG5-6177 and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant #R01 HD33648.”
9. Williamson JR, Friedman MA, McKean JL, Ghosh P, Donahue HJ, Hwang PY.Sex-specific extracellular matrix remodeling in skeletal muscle after immobilization.Cel Mol Bioeng. 2026 Sep 21.PI: M.A. FriedmanNote: This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 3.5
   
   Funding: “The work presented in this study was funded by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AO69A) Go for Launch Award (MAF), the Jackson Laboratory Diversity Outbred Pilot Grant Program (HJD, MAF), NSF CAREER Award (2145756; PYH), NIH R35 (R35 GM155045; PYH), and VCU startup funds (PYH).”
10. Patel R, Bharti B.Field-driven active colloids as distributed micromachines: Bridging physics, control, and function across length scales.Advanced Science. 2026 Sep 30;e78065.PI: B. BhartiNote: This article may be obtained online without charge.
    
    Journal Impact Factor: 14.1
    
    Funding: “We thank Mr. S. Neupane (LSU), Dr. J. G. Lee (LSU), Dr. H. M. Gauri (University of Pennsylvania), Dr. A. Al Harraq (E-ink), Prof. K. J. M. Bishop (Columbia University), Prof. S. L. Biswal (Rice University), Prof. Z. M. Sherman (University of Washington), Prof. M. Bevan (Johns Hopkins University), and Prof. O. D. Velev (North Carolina State University) for the useful discussions over the years. RP acknowledges the financial support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-FINESST fellowship (80NSSC25K7252), and BB acknowledges the support through the National Science Foundation (NSF) through grant numbers CBET-1943986 (NSF-CAREER) and DMR-2522727, NASA, and Louisiana Board of Regents via grant number 80NSSC24M0105.”

Other papers of interest:

1. Shim JH, Lee JY, Han J, Kim HS.Integrative transcriptomics identifies an 18-gene candidate blood-accessible biomarker panel for longitudinal monitoring of spaceflight-induced muscle atrophy.PLoS One. 2026 Oct 7;21(10):e0358130.Note: From the article: “THP-1 cells (ATCC TIB-202) were maintained in RPMI-1640 supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated foetal bovine serum, 2 mM L-glutamine, and 0.05 mM 2-mercaptoethanol at 37 °C in 5% CO2. ISS culture comprised 14 days of microgravity exposure in NASA Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC) hardware aboard the ISS; RNA was stabilized in RNA later immediately post-culture, and simultaneous ground-control cultures were maintained at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC).” This article may be obtained online without charge.
2. Barla NSSC, Klepper EM, Robinson HN.Microgravity in space and its effect on wound healing.J Dermatol Res. 2026 Sep 12;7(3):1-8. Review.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
3. Caso S.Applying sport and performance psychology to space exploration: Enhancing astronaut training, performance and mission readiness.Int J Sport Exerc Psychol. 2026 Sep 16;1-20. Review.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
4. Deblieck C, Finazzi Agrò A, Mortaheb S, De Smet D, Schoenmaekers C, Wuyts FL, Jillings S.The right inferior parietal lobule in spaceflight adaptation: A review of gravity-related processing mechanisms.npj Microgravity. 2026 Sep 18. Review.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
5. Salman SG, Waisberg E, Phadke R, Patton S, Pal A, Guarnieri JW.Spaceflight drives kidney mitochondrial reprogramming, innate immune activation and suppressed oxidative phosphorylation.Life Sci Space Res. 2026 Oct 2. Online ahead of print.Note: From the abstract: “We performed a mitochondria-focused analysis of transcriptomic data from the NASA Open Science Data Repository for female mice flown on Rodent Research (RR)-1, RR-3, and RR-7. Six left-kidney and two adrenal gland tissues from flight-versus-ground contrasts spanning C57BL/6J, BALB/c, and C3H/HeJ strains, 25 to 75 days of flight, and 6.46 to 19.39 mGy radiation exposure were analyzed using differential expression and gene set enrichment analyses.”
6. Silburn A.Cosmic radiation: Challenges and innovations in mitigating risks for long-term space missions.New Space. 2026 Sep 11;21680256261488424.
7. Wei F, Ngo C, Neal CJ, Schwartzman JD, Pugazhendhi AS, Omer M, Walck CD, Seal S, Coathup MJ.P7C3: A novel multi-target therapeutic strategy to combat disuse-related bone loss in space and on Earth.Metabolism. 2026 Oct 3;156794.
8. Bartoloni A, Rafiei MM, Strigari L.Monte Carlo analysis of depth dose distributions of ⁴He and ¹²C ion beams from 0.1 to 10 GeV in a human head phantom.Radiat Environ Biophys. 2026 Oct 6.
9. Roque AM, Acosta OBL, Lozano MJR, Suarez HN, Bacabac RG.Microgravity-induced osteocyte dysfunction: An osteocyte mechanobiology unit framework.Curr Osteoporos Rep. 2026 Oct 3;24(1):41. Review.
10. Huang J, Lin J, Yang H, Wang S, Li Y, Zhang X, Wang D, Zhang L, Xie S, Du H, Wang C, Wang J, Zhu L, Wang J, Li Y, Lou X.Multimodal neuroimaging features of the brain following a 60-day simulated microgravity induced by head-down tilt bedrest.npj Microgravity. 2026 Oct 8.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
11. Urevc J, Kovšca D, Maček A, Halilovič M, Goswami N, Bergauer A.Quantitative compression ultrasound via a force-area digital twin for mechanistic assessment of venous thrombosis.Ann Biomed Eng. 2026 Sep 29.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
12. Imbert J-P, Arieli R, Balestra C.Principles, concepts, and perspectives for the improvement of decompression procedures: A neo-Haldanian approach bridging bubble physics and decompression physiology.Front Physiol. 2026 Oct 6;17:1943519.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.

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