Open life!1 undergraduate student cracked the mystery of astronauts' health

Text ｜ Xu Rui

Astronauts have not lived in space. For decades, people have discovered that astronaut's immune system will be suppressed in space, making them more likely to get sick. However, the mechanism of disorders of the above immune system has always been a mystery.

A study published on September 12 in the Store in "Cell and Development Biology" unveiled this mystery. Rocky An, an undergraduate student of the dual majors of Biological and Machinery Engineering of Cornell University in the United States, found that the transcription factor MRTF may be a multi -scale mechanical biological method for solving the functional disorders of macrophages in space astronauts (key cells in the body's immune response) The lack of part.

An reviewed the literature on macrophages in the past 20 years, and the recent research on how macrophages responded to their strength under normal gravity.

"I have been thinking about how related research data is presented. Two of them are very important. One is about how macrophages are suppressed under micro -gravity conditions, and the other is about macrophage cell mechanical biology Study. I associate these two papers and generate the ideas in my research. "An said.

In space that lacks gravity, the shape of immune cells will change. Scientists suspect the changes in cell skeleton are related to the disorders of the immune system. Recent research under normal gravity shows that the cell skeleton that interfere with macrophages will reduce the transfer of a specific protein (transcription factors that are important to immune response) to the nucleus.

Through the research, analysis related research modes and time standards of cells under complaints, AN found that the transcription factor MRTF may be the culprit of the immune system disorders.

"I think MRTF is an important factor that causes the immune system problem, which may be the first step in space immunotherapy." An said.

AN pointed out in the research papers that MRTF may also be related to the stress of cardiovascular health of astronauts, and emphasized that further research needs to be further studied in other factors that may work in the immune system disorders, which helps understand how MRTF is with giant under micro -gravity conditions and giant giants Elemental nucleus interaction.

AN, as an undergraduate, can write the dissertation independently by relying on the previous research and accumulation of "opening". He thanked the professors of Cornell University in the dissertation and said that the teaching methods of the professor and their teaching methods have benefited himself a lot. Through laboratory and project team research, he received many opportunities for independent learning and asked questions.

Before I studied at Cornell University, An had contact with the laboratory of microbiology and immunology professor of the School of Veterinary Medicine, the professor of immunology at the school, and had contact with the laboratory of the professor of microbiology and immunology at the school.

During the summer internship in 2021, AN was selected as a research assistant for the ASCO Space Life Science Training Project. Here, he studied the impact of micro -gravity on cells and co -authored his first paper with others. Study the optimization of cell modeling framework under gravity.

In the summer of 2022, he was engaged in the field of mechanical immunotherapy in the Harvard Research Institute as a "Anjin scholar" to explore methods of manipulating cell structures.

"I have always been interested in cells and cellular. It has new ideas, which is very different from what I usually learn in biology. I like the collision between the two fields very much." An said.

Related thesis information:

https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.20222.997365

"China Science News" (2022-09-22 The 2nd edition of the original title of the international title "Undergraduate revealed the mechanism of the induction of the astronaut's immune system")

Edit | Zhao Lu

Capture | Zhihai

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