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in parallel to the one-year mission

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research that crew member scott kelly

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and mikhail kornienko are taking part in

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kelly is participating in another study

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along with his twin brother former

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astronaut Mark Kelly in which scientists

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hope to learn more about how prolonged

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spaceflight affects the human body right

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down to the DNA and it's hoped those

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findings can contribute to helping keep

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future explorers safe on trips to deep

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space the first of its kind study in the

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emerging area of omics research is

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partially funded by the National Space

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Biomedical Research Institute and chief

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scientist dr. Graham Scott joins me this

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morning to tell us more good morning

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amiko and thank you for hosting me here

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in Mission Control good morning thank

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you so much for coming this is really

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fascinating interesting data so there's

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a lot of words that are being thrown

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around that not everybody is quite

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familiar with so we'll start with first

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of all how do you explain to folks about

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what omics research is sure so I makes

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means that you look at the totality of

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what's going on inside the cell so to

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make that a little more concrete for you

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about 12 years ago here on earth we

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completed the sequencing of the human

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genome and that the human genome is a

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recipe it's a parts list if you if you

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will for a human being and so once we

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have that genome we can then use it and

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project if you like or extrapolate out

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from that and figure out what proteins

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might be might be made because DNA is

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really a recipe for making proteins and

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so we can look inside the cells we can

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look look to see what proteins we can

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observe we can look to see what specific

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gene variations we see in a particular

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person and what what this whole area of

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omics is doing is it's really opening a

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new chapter in medicine so now in the

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future when you go to visit your doctor

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or if you go to a hospital like MD

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Anderson one of the things that will be

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done is a genomic sequence to really

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figure out

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how you might be different small

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differences any two people are about

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ninety nine point five percent

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equivalent so there's about half a

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percent difference genetically between

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any two people but they can make a big

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difference in terms of drugs that are

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being prescribed how we sleep how we

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exercise all of these things so alex is

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looking at the totality at the

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collective milieu if you will of

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biomolecules data within the cells and

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so what does this really mean for you as

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a subject or research subject or a

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patient or for Scott Kelly on orbit it

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means that we're drawing blood we're

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looking at the saliva we're looking at

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the urine primarily biofluids and then

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we can repatriate those biofluids in the

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case of Scott Kelly back down here to

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earth and then we can use sophisticated

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molecular diagnostic techniques such as

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DNA sequencing to really look and see

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what is going on with his DNA with his

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proteins with his RNA and in this case

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what's really beautiful is we can do

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this relative to his brother okay who's

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essentially genetically identical to

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Scott that's what I was going to ask you

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about the you know what what how the the

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comparison of the two of them and what I

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mean obviously that's a very unique

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opportunity that we have but how does

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that actually in terms of comparing his

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DNA how does that help help whip this

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research even more say that right so in

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any experiment you like to have controls

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you like to have a research subject that

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you're you're doing an experiment on and

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then you and then typically you'll have

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a group often a group of research

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subjects we're whether in some

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controlled environment so here what

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we've got is we've got Scott Kelly on

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all but being subjected to microgravity

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space radiation close confinement all of

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the stresses of that space environment

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in my Kelly's here on earth and he is

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essentially leading a normal life now

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that the really elegant thing is these

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two individuals to a very good order of

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approximation are genetically identical

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so what we can drive towards here is

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there is this very fundamental question

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of nature versus nurture because these

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two individuals to a very good order

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approximation all right

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unicord genetically so therefore when we

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look and see when we do this omics

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research which again is looking at the

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totality of how the molecules are

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changing inside your cells we have this

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theory we have the best control that you

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could that you could dream of right

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because they're genetically identical so

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it really drives at this nature versus

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nurture question and so what so what we

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can then infer potentially is if we see

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differences between the two twin

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brothers we can say well we sort of

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taking the nature piece a little bit to

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some extent at least a very large extent

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out of the equation because the nurture

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the environment is really influencing

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those differences potentially between

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the 20 and we're also tracking each

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point over time so not only are we

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comparing the twin brothers to one

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another but we're looking at in the case

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of scott kelly and Mark as well they're

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how their bio molecules are performing

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before flight in the case of Scott

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during flight and then after floaters

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yeah so it's a really really nicely

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designed stuff yeah and and I can see

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you know how that it'll be very

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fascinating to see how you know the

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environment just the factors of

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environment can can change and how our

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body reacts to that so that's it's very

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interesting so tell me now you i had i

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know you've written about the

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development of precision medicine um can

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you describe that's right that's right

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so now because we have the ability to do

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genomic sequencing which by the way you

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can do for about a thousand dollars this

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is about the price narrow of an MRI of

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you know if you were to go in and have

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some part of your body image it's about

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the same price that's becoming very very

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affordable so now with this genomic

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information we can actually look at

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there's a half a percent difference

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between between any two individuals and

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what that can and this is increasingly

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permeating into different areas of

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medicine let's take oncology as an

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example so if somebody was to go to md

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anderson and they were to be diagnosed

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with cancer one of the first things that

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would be done is some genomic sequencing

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to look at some specific genes why are

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we doing that well we want to prescribe

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the really tailored treatment for the

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patient we know what the last thing we

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want to do is put a page

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on three months of chemotherapy and it's

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not effective so if we do this genomic

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sequencing we can look at the specific

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variants the specific genomic makeup if

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you will of an individual and decide

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whether a particular medicine will be

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effective most likely or not so we're

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really targeting we're doing in a very

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precise way where we're in business

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genomic information within informing the

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treatment and so this is the kind of

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paradigm that we're increasingly going

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to see spreading out through all

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different areas of Medicine and what

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we'd like to do is bring this precision

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medicine strategy bring it to NASA

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because one of the things that we're

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going to need to do on these very

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demanding long-duration missions like

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that it was going to be my next question

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how is this precision medicine going to

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help us keep our astronauts safe for

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those future mission well we'll let me

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let me let me give you an example of how

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this might be beneficial so right now on

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the space station we have a number of

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medicines and there are no they're in a

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large kit and and but it's somewhat

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generic there there are there are all

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different kinds of medicines for example

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there are sleep medications there are

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medications for pain relief these types

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of things but it's not specifically

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tailored to an individual's makeup so

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what we'd like to do particularly on a

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long-duration mission where there really

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isn't an opportunity to bring the

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astronaut back to earth if there is a

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medical emergency we like to make sure

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that the correct the tailored the really

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tailored drugs are on board for each

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individual astronaut other ways that

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this could come in right now you're

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aware that some of our astronauts and

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paid all the restaurants are exercising

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at least maybe two hours a day but we

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also when they return to if we see quite

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a bit of variation in their muscle mass

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and their bone mass maybe not every

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single one of them needs to exercise two

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hours ago maybe they could it maybe

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someone could exercise less maybe some

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of them need to exercise a little more

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so it's about really tailoring these

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countermeasures in a very precise way

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and using genomic information for each a

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personalized exactly to help us do that

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so now you've got molecular information

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so rather than having to put people

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through a whole lot of sort of exercises

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and tests are on the ground maybe you

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can use their genetic and

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mention very simple blood is to predict

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what medicines to take on the space

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station how long someone might need to

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exercise maybe what sort of how their

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how they're sleeping arrangements should

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be in terms of lighting countermeasures

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or how long they might need to sleep how

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susceptible they are to space radiation

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these types of things could really help

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us plan and execute a long-duration

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mission much more safely it is extremely

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fascinating and I'm so happy you came

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out to talk to us obviously there's a

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ton of information that we could go on

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and on and on I don't have all that time

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but I really appreciate you coming out I

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know you have also talked you've written

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a blog about it there's a two-part blog

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see online you can go get that blog

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available online now at blogs nasa.gov

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slash ISS underscores science underscore

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blog again dr. Graham Scott thank you so