Visualizing Omics Data from Spaceflight Samples using the NASA GeneLab Platform

NASA’s GeneLab platform is the first omics database and platform limited to studies related to space flight. This platform provides the scientific community a valuable resource for exploring, evaluating, and discovering hypotheses of space biology. In the platform we offer users multiple tools to explore GeneLab data including: a comprehensive, well-annotated data repository for all space related omics data, omics data analysis tools, space environmental metadata, and differential gene expression visualization tools. Here we focus on the latter, and how these tools can be utilized to explore scientific questions related to space biology. Spaceflight is known to create many health risks in astronauts due to both microgravity and space radiation exposure. Current research is focused on the underlying biological mechanisms behind these health risks and potential countermeasures to mitigate these health risks. One specific health risk is related to increased liver damage during exposure to the space environment (Beheshti et al, Scientific Reports, 2019). Longer exposure to the space environment appears to cause increased lipid accumulation and transcriptomic analysis suggests pathways and genes related to liver disease (i.e. PPARα, Insulin or INS, and Glucagon or GCG) can be activated. We use this scenario to demonstrate how GeneLab’s platform and visualization capabilities can be utilized to quickly reveal this process in GeneLab platform data. Lastly, we discuss some issues and best practices for implementing similar, public- platform visualization tools.