Susana (Susi) Zanello, Ph.D.

Scientist, Universities Space Research Association–Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA

Honorary Senior Research Fellow, King’s College, London, UK

Susi is a biomedical research scientist, with twenty-five years of experience in molecular and cell biology, with an emphasis in space life sciences.  Competencies include research development, coordination, and study implementation.

Dr Zanello’s expertise includes space life sciences research at NASA Johnson Space Center, centered but not limited to a high priority risk of human spaceflight, the visual impairment and intracranial pressure syndrome (VIIP). Her experience includes spaceflight ground human analog studies, adaptation to spaceflight and lunar/planetary environmental and habitat factors, and animal and human ocular and intracranial pressure research related to spaceflight. Assessment of bioanalytical technologies addressing the needs of research and medicine in human space exploration and remote locations has also been her interest. 

Dr Zanello’s previous academic research included the biological bases of ophthalmic conditions, circadian biology, and molecular biology of the vitamin D endocrine system. In addition, she has extensive teaching and mentoring experience, as well as public outreach activities aimed at the dissemination of science.

Dr Zanello’s fascination with space started as she watched the man landing on the moon for the first time in 1969. From then on, she knew she wanted to be a scientist. Her area is biomedical research, which she has been conducting for over 20 years at various academic institutions and affiliated hospital and, since 2007, at NASA, in the area of space medicine. Currently, she also collaborates with the Center of Human Aerospace and Physiological Sciences (CHAPS) at King’s College.