Carlos Ferreira Gaxiola

Researcher @Dreamup

US

Designed and led a microgravity protein-synthesis experiment flown to the ISS aboard SpaceX CRS-31. Working with Harvard mentors, our team engineered an E. coli BL21 system expressing GFP to quantify protein production in microgravity vs. Earth. After post-flight analysis at Harvard, we found that protein synthesis in microgravity was approximately 3x higher than in ground controls, suggesting that reduced gravity can significantly accelerate certain cellular processes. Raised in funding, co-authored our research manuscript, and presented our results at the ASGSR Investigator Poster Session as the only high school team among ~200 undergraduate and graduate groups.