Using digital technologies to improve muscle health in Astronauts

该项目的目的是利用数字技术来发展对太空飞行中肌肉萎缩的机制理解。如果听之任之，在太空飞行中肌肉质量和性能的损失将对宇航员的健康和关键任务的成功构成重大风险。随着商业乘客的异质人口和长时间火星航行的雄心勃勃的计划，迫切需要阐明肌肉萎缩的潜在原因，并揭示个体差异的作用。在太空飞行环境之外，肌肉萎缩也是地球上患者的一个关键问题，他们可能由于缺乏活动、衰老（肌肉减少症）和肌肉萎缩症等不同原因而出现萎缩。因此，对这种萎缩反应的机制理解的进步可能会为地球上的患者和太空中的宇航员提供对策的发展。本项目使用的技术将包括用于解释来自研究的生物“组学”数据的生物信息学，包括类似于航天飞行的人类地面研究和使用模式生物（如啮齿动物和蠕虫）的航天研究。此外，将开发先进的计算机视觉解决方案，以实现实验的功能分析，包括研究基因突变蠕虫肌肉力量的国际空间站实验。最终，将功能测量与“组学”数据分析相结合，建立“组学”变化与生理变化之间的因果关系。此外，该项目还将包括促进生物医学航天能力发展的其他活动，包括开发生物医学立方体卫星的管理软件，以及调查人类航天中生物数据使用的隐私、伦理和法律问题。

The aim of this project is to use digital techniques to develop the mechanistic understanding of muscle atrophy in spaceflight. If left unabated, loss of muscle mass and performance in spaceflight poses a key risk to astronaut health and success in mission critical tasks. With ambitious plans for heterogenous populations of commercial passengers and long-duration voyages to Mars, there is an urgency to elucidate the underlying causes of muscle atrophy and uncover the role of individual differences. Outside of the spaceflight context, muscle atrophy is also a key issue for patients on Earth, who may experience atrophy due to different causes such as inactivity, ageing (Sarcopenia), and muscular dystrophy. Therefore, advancements in the mechanistic understanding of this atrophic response may inform the development of countermeasures for both patients on Earth and astronauts in space.Techniques used in this project will include bioinformatics for interpreting biological "omics" data from studies, including human ground-based studies that are analogous of spaceflight and spaceflight studies using model organisms, such as rodents and worms. Additionally, advanced computer vision solutions will be developed to enable functional analyses of experiments, including an ISS experiment for investigating muscle strength in genetic mutant worms. Ultimately, functional measures will be combined with analysis of "omics" data, to establish causal relationships between the "omics" changes, and the physiological changes.Additionally, this project will include other activities for furthering the development of biomedical spaceflight capabilities, including the development of the governing software for a biomedical CubeSat, and investigations into the privacy, ethical and legal issues of biological data usage in human spaceflight.