This document is a Request For Information (RFI) and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) will take any action in this matter. Responses may be submitted by U.S. and non-U.S. individuals and entities.
The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) developed a program enabling space health research through partnerships with commercial space providers and their customers. Initiated with the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, TRISH launched the Enhancing eXploration Platforms and ANalog Definition (EXPAND), the first-of-its-kind research program to study human health and performance in private spaceflight participants. TRISH’s EXPAND Program collects mission data from commercial spaceflight participants across all phases of flight into a centralized database. An important component of the EXPAND program is a repository of biospecimens collected pre- and post-flight. These samples were collected and biobanked under the GENESTAR protocol (Krishnavajhala et al., 2025), and they are one of the only sources of biological material available from a pool of non-governmental astronaut population. The collection is limited, and any sample used to generate data is consumed in the process and cannot be recovered. For that reason, TRISH wants to understand what data the research community would find most valuable to generate from these samples before committing material to any particular assay.
Through this Request for Information (RFI), TRISH seeks inputs from the research community regarding the molecular data that would be of greatest scientific value if generated from EXPAND biospecimens.
TRISH encourages interested parties to submit their response no later than September 8, 2026, 11:59 pm Central Time. Do not include company proprietary information or sensitive business information.
Please see the RFI for detailed information here.
Request For Information (RFI): Optimizing the Scientific Impact of the EXPAND Commercial Spaceflight Biosample Collection
This document is a Request For Information (RFI) and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) will take any action in this matter. Responses may be submitted by U.S. and non-U.S. individuals and entities.
The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) developed a program enabling space health research through partnerships with commercial space providers and their customers. Initiated with the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, TRISH launched the Enhancing eXploration Platforms and ANalog Definition (EXPAND), the first-of-its-kind research program to study human health and performance in private spaceflight participants. TRISH’s EXPAND Program collects mission data from commercial spaceflight participants across all phases of flight into a centralized database. An important component of the EXPAND program is a repository of biospecimens collected pre- and post-flight. These samples were collected and biobanked under the GENESTAR protocol (Krishnavajhala et al., 2025), and they are one of the only sources of biological material available from a pool of non-governmental astronaut population. The collection is limited, and any sample used to generate data is consumed in the process and cannot be recovered. For that reason, TRISH wants to understand what data the research community would find most valuable to generate from these samples before committing material to any particular assay.
Through this Request for Information (RFI), TRISH seeks inputs from the research community regarding the molecular data that would be of greatest scientific value if generated from EXPAND biospecimens.
TRISH encourages interested parties to submit their response no later than September 8, 2026, 11:59 pm Central Time. Do not include company proprietary information or sensitive business information.
Please see the RFI for detailed information here.