miniPCR and partners launch STEM dreams to space (video)

This post originally appeared in the FedEx blog. FedEx is a sponsor of Genes in Space, the science competition organized by miniPCR and partners that invites students to design DNA analysis experiments for Space. Winning experiments are conducted aboard the International Space Station by astronauts using a miniPCR thermal cycler.

Anna-Sophia Bougarev has been fascinated with space since she was four years old.  Thirteen years later she watched as her very own lab experiment was launched into space on SpaceX 8 to the International Space Station (ISS).

Anna-Sophia’s experiment was chosen out of 700 entries in the inaugural Genes in Space competition, which challenges high-school students to design DNA experiments.  The experiment will test the effects of space environment and microgravity on astronauts’ immune systems.

The FedEx Space Solutions and the FedEx HealthCare Solutions teams provided the terrestrial shipment from Yale Medical School to Kennedy Space Center.  Upon return from ISS, scientists hope to use the findings as part of a greater effort to engineer the immune system to attack and kill cancer and other auto-immune diseases.

Learn more about the Genes in Space competition organized by miniPCR and our partners: http://www.genesinspace.org/