NASA Sends Experiment to Space to Study Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

NASA is conducting an experiment aboard the International Space Station to improve the detection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are a leading cause of death worldwide and a global health concern. The Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space (GEARS) experiment aims to speed up the detection of these bacteria, particularly Enterococcus faecalis, which is commonly found in the human body. The experiment is part of a series of work to better understand how organisms grow in a space environment and how these similarities and differences might help improve research on Earth. The experiment will take place over the next year, with astronauts swabbing parts of the space station and analyzing samples by adding an antibiotic to the medium.