NASA GeneLab

NASA GeneLab is an open-science data platform and repository established in 2015 at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, that archives and provides public access to multi-omics data — genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenomics, and metabolomics — generated from biological experiments conducted in space and in spaceflight-analog ground environments.

The fundamental challenge GeneLab addresses is that spaceflight experiments involving living organisms (mice, plants, model organisms like C. elegans and Drosophila, cell cultures) are rare, expensive, and generate valuable molecular data that has historically been siloed or underutilized. GeneLab makes these datasets freely accessible via genelab.nasa.gov, enabling researchers worldwide to perform computational analyses — including cross-mission comparisons, machine learning-based discovery, and systems biology studies — without requiring their own spaceflight experiments.

Key research themes include the molecular mechanisms of muscle atrophy (a critical crew health issue on long-duration missions), bone loss, immune system dysregulation, and radiation-induced DNA damage in microgravity. GeneLab's Analysis Working Groups bring together international scientists to perform systematic meta-analyses of spaceflight omics data, accelerating understanding of how life responds to the space environment in ways directly relevant to protecting astronaut health on Artemis Moon missions and eventual Mars expeditions.