Kathleen Hallisey "Kate" Rubins is a NASAastronaut. She became the 60th woman to fly in space when she launched on a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station on July 7, 2016. She returned to Earth on October 30, 2016 aboard a Soyuz. She was a crew member of Expedition 48 and Expedition 49 of the International Space Station.
Rubins conducted her undergraduate research on HIV-1 integration in the Infectious Diseases Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. She analyzed the mechanism of HIV integration, including several studies of HIV-1 Integrase inhibitors and genome-wide analyses of HIV integration patterns into host genomic DNA. She obtained her Ph.D. from Stanford University and, with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rubins and colleagues developed the first model of smallpox infection. She also developed a complete map of the poxvirus transcriptome and studied virus-host interactions using both in-vitro and animal model systems. Rubins accepted a Fellow/Principal Investigator position at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and headed a lab of researchers studying viral diseases that primarily affect Central and West Africa. Work in the Rubins Lab focused on poxviruses and host-pathogen interaction as well as viral mechanisms for regulating host cell mRNA transcription, translation and decay. In addition, she conducted research on transcriptome and genome sequencing of Ebolavirus, Marburgvirus, and Lassa virus, and collaborative projects with the U.S. Army to develop therapies for Ebola and Lassa.
NASA career
Rubins was selected in July 2009 as one of 14 members of NASA Astronaut Group 20. She graduated from Astronaut Candidate Training where her training included International Space Station systems, Extravehicular Activity, robotics, physiological training, T-38 flight training and water and wilderness survival training. She became the 60th woman in space when she launched on Soyuz MS-01 in July 2016.
Expedition 48/49
Rubins left Earth for the first time on July 7, 2016 on board the new Soyuz MS spacecraft along side Russian cosmonaut Anatoli Ivanishin and JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi. In August 2016, Rubins became the first person to sequence DNA in space. Aboard the ISS, she used a hand-held, USB-powered DNA sequencer called the MinION made by Oxford Nanopore Technologies to determine the DNA sequences of mouse, E. coli bacteria, and lambda phage virus. It was a part of the Biomolecule Sequencer experiment, the goal of which was "to provide evidence that DNA sequencing in space is possible, which holds the potential to enable the identification of microorganisms, monitor changes in microbes and humans in response to spaceflight, and possibly aid in the detection of DNA-based life elsewhere in the universe." During her first stay in space, she also spent 12 hours and 46 minutes outside the station on two separate spacewalks.. She made these two spacewalks with veteran spacewalker Jeffrey Williams. Rubins returned to Earth on October 30, 2016 after 115 days in space.
