The mission of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world. Human factors that contribute to the readiness and ability of an aircraft crew to carry out their duties from gate to gate play a significant role in airline safety. Factors of interest in aerospace medicine include fatigue, hypoxia, radiation and alcohol use.
TThe Functional Genomics team at the FAA uses systems biology approaches to identify biomarkers that provide early indications of physiological impairment in crewmembers. Biomarkers discovered during our research will be translated to cost-effective real-time microfluidic assays in blood.
Unlike the response seen in many disease states, fatigue and moderate hypoxia have very subtle symptoms that can impair cognitive flight readiness. Furthermore, aerospace human factors are poorly understood at the molecular level. Systems approaches to biology offer the potential to generate more and better information much faster than via traditional research methods.
At the FAA we are utilizing cutting-edge analysis tools commonly used by scientists in mainstream branches of biomedical research. Most of these tools have been developed by basic science investigators. The ability to utilize the findings generated from one analysis as a basis for the next investigation makes the tools developed at ISB especially useful. These tools, presented during a systems biology course at ISB, integrate data from disparate sources, including data and statistical analysis algorithms, databases containing genetic and protein interaction information, and protein modification data. The compiled information is easily visualized and queried, leading to new understandings of cellular function in response to the surrounding environment. For example, results from testing sleep-deprived subjects show gene expression changes in
The ultimate goal of this research is to increase safety and save lives by decreasing accident rates. However, the wide-ranging impact of factors such as fatigue in all walks of life gives this research much broader application. A systems biology approach has enabled us to view aerospace medicine from a new perspective and speed the pace of our research. Our fatigue research will guide the writing of fact-based duty schedules that account for fatigue in transportation and other industries. In addition, our research into the effects of hypoxia at aviation-relevant oxygen levels will help in updating regulations regarding supplemental oxygen across the aviation industry.
Data about these aerospace-related human factors currently cannot be gathered in accident investigations. Like the proactive regulatory approach already addressed, systems biology is making it possible to develop tests for use in accident investigations and will help determine causality of these unfortunate events. We expect systems biology to affect aerospace medicine positively in the very near future by improving biomarker discovery efforts and bringing tools to identify the presence of these biomarkers on-line more quickly.
© 2009 Institute for Systems Biology. All rights reserved.