NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, April 11, to share the results of a study – embargoed by the journal Science until that time – evaluating identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly. A Reddit iAMA will follow the media teleconference at 4 p.m.

The briefing participants are:

  • Scott Kelly, retired NASA astronaut, study participant
  • Mark Kelly, retired NASA astronaut, study participant
  • Steven Platts, Ph.D., NASA Human Research Program deputy chief scientist
  • Susan M. Bailey, Ph.D., Colorado State University, principal investigator, Telomeres
  • Andrew Feinberg, MD, Johns Hopkins University, principal investigator, Epigenomics
  • Stuart M. C. Lee, Ph.D. KBRwyle, principal investigator, Metabolomics 
  • Christopher E. Mason, Ph.D., Weill Cornell Medicine, principal investigator, Gene Expression
  • Michael Snyder, Ph.D., Stanford University, principal investigator, Integrative Omics

Teleconference audio will stream live at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

Reporters interested in obtaining a copy of the embargoed Science study should reach out to the Science press package team at scipak@aaas.org. For reporters registered with EurekAlert!, the embargoed study also is available at: 

https://www.eurekalert.org/jrnls/sci/

The Twins Study is helping scientists better understand the impacts of spaceflight on the human body through the study of identical twins. The Twins Study research encompassed 10 separate investigators who coordinated and shared all data and analysis as one large, integrated research team. Retired astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station while retired astronaut Mark Kelly, his identical twin, remained on Earth. The twins’ genetic similarity provided scientists with a reduced number of variables and an ideal control group, both important to scientific investigation.

For dial-in information, media must contact NASA’s Johnson Space Center newsroom in Houston, at 281-483-5111 no later than 1 p.m. April 11. Questions may be submitted on Twitter during the teleconference using the hashtag #askNASA. Questions can be submitted to the Reddit iAMA event when it begins at 4 p.m.

For more information about NASA’s Twin Study, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/twins-study

https://www.nasa.gov/hrp