Troy High School graduates’ experiment goes up in space
Troy High School graduates Finsam Samson and Yujie Wang’s DNA experiment was transported to the International Space Station with the SpaceX crew.
This historic mission teaming SpaceX and NASA was part of the first official crew-rotation mission from America in nearly a decade. The mission sending four astronauts to the International Space Station successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:27 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14 and was broadcast live on several news outlets.
Wang, who currently attends University of California, Berkeley, said, “It really feels like being part of something monumental.”
The students and their mentors gave the astronauts extracted genetic material from fruit flies with the goal of learning more about how spaceflight affects brain function.
“We established a method by which we can look at how longterm space flight can impact neural function,” said Samson, now a sophomore at Stanford University.
Samson and Wang’s project was selected during last year’s NASA Genes in Space competition. As part of the program, they received mentorship from MIT and Harvard PhD scientists, attended Biology Space Camp and presented their research at a science conference.
Troy High School AP Biology teacher Rebecca Brewer said, “I am extremely proud to see Finsam and Yujie’s dedication and innovativeness translate into winning this competition.”
“I am certain this accomplishment is only the beginning and will send them on a trajectory to future successes in the sciences. They serve as role models to all my current members of Troy High’s Biology Competition Club.”