SpaceX Inspiration4 Plasma Profiling: Proteomics, EVPs, Metabolomics, cfDNA Sequencing and cfRNA Sequencing

The SpaceX Inspiration4 mission was a 3-day mission with four private astronauts to low Earth orbit that occurred in September 2021. The crew collected biospecimen samples before, during, and after flight. One of these biospecimens was plasma from venous blood, which was collected pre-flight (L-92, L-44, L-3) and post-flight (R+1, R+45, R+82). Plasma was collected via three methods: cell-free DNA blood collection tubes (cfDNA BCTs), cell processing tubes (CPTs) and via Ficoll separation from K2 EDTA tubes. Plasma from cfDNA BCTs was used to isolate cfDNA for sequencing. Plasma from CPTs was used for proteomics. Plasma from the K2 EDTA tubes was used for metabolomics and to isolate extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs) for mass spectrometry. Differential protein and metabolite abundances were calculated pre vs post-flight to generate processed data files.