A University of California, Davis, microbiologist and a
professional cheerleader are teaming up with "citizen
scientists" to send microbes to the International Space Station
and study their growth. The project is one of eight announced
Nov. 29 as winners of the International Space Station Research
Competition sponsored by Space Florida and Nanoracks Inc. The
team is led by Professor Jonathan Eisen at the UC Davis Genome
Center and "Science Cheerleader" Wendy Brown, a graduate student
in biomedical engineering who has cheered for the Sacramento
Mountain Lions, Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Falcons. Brown will
work with the Science Cheerleader organization and
SciStarter.com to recruit school kids and volunteers to take
part. Participants will collect microbial samples from a wide
range of environments on Earth, including sports venues, schools
and homes. Eisen's lab will use DNA sequencing methods to
identify the microbes in the samples. In addition, microbes from
some of the samples will be grown in Eisen's la