The Discovery Initiative is excited to make a call for a select group of Space Biosciences Discovery Fellows! This brand new collaboration between the Berkeley Discovery Initiative and the Space Biosciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center is one part of a burgeoning collaboration between Discovery and NASA.
The Program
For this iteration of the Discovery Hub, Fellows will work closely with NASA scientists to develop a foundation model tailored to space life sciences. Building upon existing biological and medical models, the effort will integrate a diverse range of space-relevant datasets—including multi-omics profiles, medical imaging, wearable sensor data, clinical records, and spacecraft environmental telemetry.
The resulting model will be shared with the broader space life sciences community for fine-tuning and adaptation to specialized AI applications that support NASA’s mission. Potential uses include predicting biological responses to spaceflight hazards, informing the design of preventive countermeasures, and advancing personalized health strategies for astronauts.
The Projects
For the first cycle of Space Biosciences Discovery Fellows, we are seeking 2 UC Berkeley graduate students to gather research clusters of 2–4 undergraduate students for the entirety of the academic year. Fellows will design and collaborate on a project, led by a NASA Ames Space Biosciences project team, that aligns with the foundation model initiative. Projects should address specific aspects of foundation model training. For example, projects could focus on identifying and curating relevant datasets, developing pipelines and code for data wrangling and harmonization, evaluating existing life science models or model architectures, or training or fine tuning models (or any combinations of these or other relevant areas). In all cases projects should support the overall goal of developing an AI model that can be used to accelerate space life science research and support astronaut health.
Compensation and Research Funding
Fellows will be compensated $2,000 per undergraduate scholar they mentor, per year. (So, for clusters of 3 undergraduate students, a fellow can expect 6k for AY2025-26.) Plus, $2,000 in research funds to support the activities and investigations of the cluster.
In Partnership With...
