Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA)

The NASA Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) provides public access to physiological, phenotypic, bioimaging, video, behavioral, hardware, and environmental telemetry data from space-relevant experiments and missions through the NASA Open Science Data Repository (OSDR). Data is mostly from model organisms (rodents, plants, yeast, drosophila, microbes, etc.), but also from non-NASA human astronauts. The goal of ALSDA is to enable multi-modal and multi-hierarchical fundamental space life science data (phenotypic, physiological, behavioral, hardware, environmental telemetry; tabular, text, code, images, video; raw, processed) be reused toward basic science, applied science, and operational outcomes for space exploration and knowledge discovery.

In 2021, ALSDA began its integration into OSDR, which also includes NASA GeneLab and the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection. Based upon the GeneLab architecture, workflows, and approach for metadata standards, ALSDA retooled its systems and processes to improve the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of its data. OSDR was established publicly in 2022. New datasets in ALSDA now have workflows for processing of tabular data, metadata standards for all assays, and datasets are scientifically curated to enhance reusability by scientists and computer science informatic approaches (e.g., machine learning, modeling). Advantageous new tools in OSDR for ALSDA (and its users/submitters) include an online Research Data Submission Agreement (RDSA) tool, Biological Data Management Environment - a single point-of-entry data submission portal, and DOIs for submitted/released datasets.

Life sciences research has been conducted by NASA both in space and analogously on the ground for over 60 years. The range of research is extensive, from basic cellular biology to applied biomedical studies. The Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) was the first integrated, systematic effort to collect and catalog space life sciences data and information using archival methodologies. Over the years LSDA designated three NASA centers to manage investigations: Ames Research Center (ARC) on animal and microbial research, Johnson Space Center (JSC) on NASA human research subjects, and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on plant research.

ALSDA is funded and managed predominantly by the NASA Space Biology Program within the NASA Biological and Physical Sciences Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, and also by the NASA Human Research Program. As ALSDA physiological/phenotypic-level datasets are curated and released in OSDR (e.g., histology, micro-computed tomography, hyperspectral imaging, elevated plus maze, tonometry, intraocular pressure, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, ultrasonography, gait, cell viability, magnetic resonance imaging, etc.), the concurrent mining of these data with molecular-omics datasets found in OSDR (via GeneLab) enables powerful omic-phenotypic, cross-mission, and cross-species analyses. ALSDA maximizes the scientific return from NASA-funded research, encourages community participation in the analysis of data toward new discoveries, and offers the world reusable space life science data so the public can be involved in the quest for space exploration.