An Empowering Decision
- Astrophysicist Sarafina Nance, a BRCA2 previvor, has been training extensively for a Mars simulation run that she sets off for on Friday.
- During the two-week run, Nance will live in a Hawaiian habitat that has been constructed to mimic the experience of living on Mars.
- BRCA 1 + 2 are genetic mutations that raise your risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer.
The expedition is put on through HI-SEAS by the International MoonBase Alliance (IMA). The 6-person crew will be collaborating with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and is one step closer to Nance’s dream coming true of actually heading to Mars.
Read Moremade it to Hawaii! spending the next couple days filming and doing some neutral buoyancy scuba dives, and then we launch to "Mars" on Friday 🙂 pic.twitter.com/WzPaXxnTKm
Sarafina Nance (@starstrickenSF) August 11, 2021
Growing up in Austin, Texas, a young Nance dreamed of going to space as she looked up at the stars at night with her father. She listened to NPR with her mom and learned more about space, and was determined to become an astronaut.
Nance got her B.S. degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Natural Sciences. Currently, she is a graduate student in the Department of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, and an astrophysicist.
Along with working hard to make her own goals come true, she also takes great measure to help inspire other women that they can achieve these dreams in a field that tends to be male-dominated. In fact, she says she was even once discouraged by a teacher along the way who told her “girls are just not cut out for this,” which only made her more determined.
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The social media personality created a TikTok video listing the top 5 things she was bringing along on her “Mars” expedition. Included? The children’s book she wrote to inspire other young astronauts!:
- Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS): To analyze the composition of rocks (xenoliths) on the volcano and correlate them with supernova ejecta.â£
- Hawaii Research Permitâ£
- Argon Canisters: To make the plasma in the LIBS brighter and last longerâ£
- Baby Wipes: Because there's no showers on Mars 😅â£
- My astronomy kid's book, "Little Leonardo's Fascinating World of Astronomy": Because every kid should be able to see themselves pursue their dreams
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A Preventative Mastectomy
When Nance was 23, she decided to do genetic testing after her father was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer. She was positive for the BRCA 2 genetic mutation, which meant that she had a higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.
Nance had a preventative double mastectomy three years later at 26 to decrease her risk from 87 percent to less than 5 percent.
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“I had three surgeries in one year, and my last one was almost exactly a year ago," Nance told Yahoo! news last month. She is an advocate for genetic testing, preventative surgery, and shares her story openly so that other women (and men) can be educated on the importance of genetic testing.
BRCA (a breast cancer gene mutation) is actually two genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2), each proteins that work as tumor suppressors. They help repair damaged DNA, and are important for ensuring the stability of each cell's genetic material.
When either of these genes is altered, that mutation can mean that its protein product does not function properly, or that damaged DNA may not be repaired correctly. These inherited mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 can increase the risk of female breast and ovarian cancers, and have also been associated with increased risks for several other cancers.
Dr. Rebecca Arend, associate scientist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, explains the mutation in terms of its ability to repair damaged DNA: "What a BRCA mutation is, is a defect in your ability to repair a double-strand break (in your DNA)."
The Tough Decisions: When You Know You Have a High Risk of Getting Cancer
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