From AlphaFold to Astronauts: Implications of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology for the Space Age

When considering technologies the space industry should be investing in, as well as the integration of AI and automation into new space activities, it can no longer be ignored how much computational biology has transformed over the past two decades. With the award of the 2024 Nobel Prize [1] for AlphaFold [2] and the breakthrough work of David Baker [3], the radical development of bioinformatics and what it promises for genomic medicine, the space age (as well as life on earth) faces its next technological leap in personalised medicine. In thinking about how to reframe our priorities to remain relevant in this new era, this paper breaks down the potential avenues of disruption and development that bioinformatics and computational biology could bring to human space settlement, both long term in low earth orbit (LEO), and for Moon and Mars missions. Following our recent advances witnessed in the Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP) experiments, we are now capable of predicting medically relevant macromolecular structures for disease and drug design which promise faster drug development, disruption in antimicrobials and new understanding in genomic medicine. The potential applications for human space sustainability could mean humans travel further, thrive longer, and perhaps could even colonize Mars in ways previously unconsidered as these applications of AI and machine learning can assist in overcoming many current physiological limitations.