Dr. A. Mark Settles, Synthetic Biology Investigator at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center and Emeritus Professor at University of Florida, Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Program and Horticultural Sciences Department, received a B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Stony Brook University. He completed dissertation research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and a post-doc at the University of Florida. From 2000-2021, Dr. Settles was the Vasil-Monsanto Professor of Plant Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Florida. His UF program focused on genomics, maize seed development, environmental stress tolerance, and synthetic genes for biotechnology applications. Dr. Settles was a Program Director in the National Science Foundation Plant Genome Program in 2020 and transferred to NASA Ames in 2021. His program at NASA focuses on the application of synthetic biology to deep space exploration and aeronautics. Dr. Settles has published 53 articles and book chapters and is an inventor for two patents in artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, respectively.

Abstract: The International Space Station (ISS) has enabled a continuous human presence in space since November 2000. The ISS is in low Earth orbit, facilitating regular resupply missions to deliver air, water, food, spare parts, and science experiments. NASA’s Moon to Mars campaign seeks to return humans to the Moon and prepare for crewed missions to Mars. Increased distance from Earth poses logistical challenges to provide all resources needed by humans for deep space missions. NASA Ames Research Center is conducting a series of synthetic biology projects to test the use of microbes for on-demand biosynthesis of human micronutrients. The BioNutrients spaceflight experiments test an implementation concept to produce fermented food products in which microbe growth enhances micronutrient content. On-demand production of carotenoids was engineered into two yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) strains that have been tested in nearly 5 years of storage. One of the BioNutrients strains will be incorporated into the Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications (LEIA) project. LEIA is developing an instrument suite to be delivered to the lunar south pole region by the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The LEIA instrument suite will be used to measure multiple yeast strains for growth, metabolic activity, and synthetic biology-enabled production of carotenoids, while taking real time measurements of biologically relevant radiation exposure on the lunar surface. LEIA data will be used to assess the impact of lunar surface radiation and reduced gravity on the production of engineered traits.