Sometimes to solve problems, its best to look back and learn from your ancestors. Currently, we are working together with local communities to understand traditional and natural farming techniques originally from the Pacific and Asia, and there application in basalt-type soils and rocks.
The MISA Lab also works directly with `Iolani High School, on the island of `Oahu in Hawai`i and their ʻĀina-Informatics Network (AIN). The program’s objective is to develop place-based curricula for ethical genome science that centers on Hawaiʻi’s unique relationships to ‘āina, all while generating real data via a community science approach. This growing network consists of high school science teachers from both public and private schools across Hawaiʻi.” We recently published a paper together on the AIN program and the development of place-based genomic education and research (https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2023.0072).
AIN is helping the MISA Lab and the Donachie Lab at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa in discovering new bacterial species and microbial genomic pathways relevant to space-related research. Thus far, students have sequenced and annotated the genomes of 15 different bacterial strains, mostly from Hawaiian lava caves (https://www.communityscience.iolani.org/ainainformatics/lavacave). with students from both `Oahu and the Island of Hawai`i participating in the research. New species that are discovered can then be named by the students and community members that assist with the isolation and/or sequencing of the microbes (https://www.communityscience.iolani.org/ainainformatics/lavacave/hakuinoa).
