Blood, saliva and urine samples were taken from Turkey’s first astronaut Alper Gezeravcı and his accompanying Italian and Swedish astronauts before going into space. The same samples will be taken after the astronauts return to Earth. The effects of space conditions on human health will be revealed with the ‘Metabolome’ experiment to be carried out on the samples. In the light of the data to be obtained, it is aimed to determine possible risk factors for the health of astronauts.
SAMPLES TAKEN FROM ASTRONAUTS WILL BE USED FOR TREATMENT METHODS
Project manager, Ankara University Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry Department faculty member Prof. Dr. Emine Emregül stated that they were very excited when they heard that a Turkish astronaut would go on a space flight.
‘WE WILL DO STUDIES FOR THE HEALTH OF ASTRONAUTS’
Prof. Dr. Emregül said, “And of course, we wrote a project. In this project, we will carry out our studies mostly on astronaut health. Space is one of the most severe conditions a human can encounter. Unfortunately, our astronauts suffer from low gravity, high space radiation, changes in nutrition problems, insomnia, hyperoxia. They are exposed to many environmental stresses such as. As a result of this exposure, pathological causes occur in the metabolism of our astronauts. In other words, there are changes in their physiology. We think that with this study we will find very different results at the biochemical or genetic level. And when our astronauts return to Turkey, we have already made their metabolomes from their blood and saliva. “We will do these very easily and we will detail our work based on advanced techniques,” he said.
Prof. Dr. Emregül emphasized that the research results will play an important role in the treatment of existing astronaut diseases and the development of preventive measures.
“THIS WILL BE DONE BY US FOR THE FIRST TIME”
Prof. Dr. Emregül said, “For the first time, the national omics data set (analysis of the parts within the whole and creation of the data set) will be made by us. There are individual differences in space missions. Therefore, we will create our countermeasure packages to improve these personal differences. This will be done by us for the first time.” he said.
One of the project members, Oğuzhan Durmaz, a doctoral student at Ankara University Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, noted that their team includes a heart surgeon, specialist dentist, pharmacist and biochemistry experts.