NASA Astronaut Kathleen Rubins, PhD to Open IDWeek 2018

IDWeek 2018 will be launched by the Opening Plenary, “Reaching for the Stars, Improving Science on Earth: Microbiome Research in Space” featuring NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins, PhD, the first person to sequence DNA in space. The session, to be held October 3 at 3:45 p.m., will feature a one-on-one discussion between Dr. Rubins and Inger Damon, MD, PhD, FIDSA, Director of the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Rubins was selected by NASA in 2009 and has spent 115 days in space, where she sequenced over two billion base pairs of DNA during a series of experiments to analyze sequencing in microgravity, grew cardiomyocytes in cell culture, and performed quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and microbiome experiments in space.

Before being selected by NASA, Dr. Rubins earned her PhD in cancer biology from Stanford University School of Medicine. She then accepted a fellow/principal investigator position at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and led a lab of 14 researchers studying viral diseases affecting Central and West Africa. Dr. Rubins also conducted research on transcriptome and genome sequencing of filoviruses and arenaviruses, and did collaborative projects with the US Army to develop therapies for Ebola and Lassa viruses.

To learn more about Dr. Rubins, from her undergraduate research in HIV-1 integration to her two spacewalks, check out her featured speaker page and attend her talk in San Francisco this October.

Don’t delay and miss out on the early discounted registration rates that end on June 29. Register now and make sure you arrive on time for this exciting event.