Dr. Jamie Foster is working toward a multi-planet future, but her laboratory is far from the stark, sterile imagery of hard science fiction. As a professor at the University of Florida’s Department of Microbiology and Cell Sciences, Dr. Foster’s research is unique: her lab is situated at the Kennedy Space Center in a place called the Space Life Sciences Lab.
Her team is focused on fundamental questions of survival: how do humans, animals, and the microbes they carry thrive in the punishing environment of space, and how do stresses like microgravity or radiation affect their health?
“We’re definitely looking outward,” Dr. Foster notes. “We think we’re going to eventually become a multi-planet society or species so we are working hard here at the University of Florida to try to prepare humanity for living beyond our biosphere whether that and I imagine the first few steps will be at the moon and then Mars”.
From Star Trek to Space Biology
Dr. Foster’s drive to work in space sciences was rooted in a lifelong passion inspired by popular culture and early science education. She grew up watching Star Trek and was deeply inspired by Carl Sagan’s Cosmos program in the early 1980s. She even watched the program on a black and white television at the time, proving that curiosity can be sparked anywhere.
While she initially wanted to be an astronaut, Dr. Foster shifted her focus: “If I can’t be an astronaut at least maybe my science can get to space”.
Today, her research is paving the way for sustainable deep-space missions through two groundbreaking projects.
The Model and the Engine
Dr. Foster is currently working on two major initiatives to prepare for extraterrestrial living:
- Sending Squid to Space This project sounds humorous, but it is scientifically critical. Dr. Foster is working with the bobtail squid, which possesses a special organ colonized by bacteria. This squid serves as a model for understanding how microbes and animals communicate—how the conversation starts, how it’s maintained, and how the microbe eventually helps maintain the health of the animal in response to environmental stresses like microgravity and radiation.
- On-Demand Manufacturing through Microbes The second project addresses the extreme logistical challenge of long-duration space travel. As Dr. Foster points out, “there are no Home Depots there’s no Walmart halfway to Mars”. It is simply too expensive to take everything needed.
To solve this, her lab is using microbes as “engines” to make necessary products. Through synthetic biology and genetic engineering, they can manipulate microbes to produce:
- Therapeutics and pharmaceutical products (like steroids).
- Vitamins and nutrients that can be added to smoothies or purified.
- Materials needed for long-term habitation.
This approach addresses the inherent problem of shelf life; if a pharmacy is needed in space, products don’t last forever. Microbes, however, can make these things on demand. Furthermore, other researchers at the University of Florida are using microbes to degrade plastics and help deconstruct the waste products, like the trash bags that food is stored in.
The Value of Persistence
Dr. Foster acknowledges that being part of the space program is incredibly exciting, but the path to orbit requires immense patience. When she finally got to see her first spaceflight experiment launch—an idea that took 10 years to go from concept to ignition—it was deeply satisfying.
“It’s like when you run a marathon,” she reflected, noting that once you finish, you want to do it again.
Her biggest professional challenge was not technical, but psychological: persistence.
She recalls the difficulty of getting people to listen to the initial idea of sending squid to space: “How crazy is that and just getting people to like listen to you and say ‘What well that is the craziest idea I’ve ever heard and good luck with that'”.
Dr. Foster overcame this by remaining persistent and taking every opportunity available. She advises that if you believe in an idea, even if someone shoots it down, you must keep going with it. It took her until she was an associate professor for the project she conceived as a student to finally launch into space.
A Benefit That Stays on Earth
Dr. Foster is emphatic that her work, while focused on supporting an astronaut on a trip to Mars, has immediate benefits here on Earth.
The concept of on-demand manufacturing could revolutionize remote medicine globally. If a remote location on the planet lacks the resources to truck in pharmaceuticals, the ability to make them on demand using microbial engines could solve that problem. Similarly, the technology to address the shelf-life issue and to degrade plastic waste helps address global problems.
Her ultimate advice for listeners looking to pursue ambitious goals is simple: trust yourself, trust your instincts, and do your homework.
“You may have that great idea but you got to do a lot of homework to to make sure it’s rooted in in fact science,” she says. “But it can happen and and if you can make your these little ideas happen and go big literally big”.
(Dr. Foster’s focus on engineering life to thrive in space is akin to an interstellar botanist cultivating the ultimate survival kit. Instead of hauling a massive greenhouse or pharmacy across the solar system, she is developing living seeds—the microbes—that can be grown on demand, providing everything from medicine to construction materials, making the long journey to Mars less of a supply chain nightmare and more of a self-sustaining expedition.)
