Ghassan Akkad
Education
- UC Santa Barbara, Class of 2022
Biography
Ghassan Akkad, originally from Syria, led an unorthodox childhood. From an early age he moved around frequently, relocating to wherever job prospects were best for his parents. It was during his stay in Brunei Darussalam where Ghassan fell in love with both space and biology. The near pitch-black sky posed far more many questions than it answered. Ghassan grew more interested in the subject of Astrobiology, a branch of biology concerned with the effects of outer space on living organisms and the search for extraterrestrial life. Ghassan is now in the process of creating an Individual Major under the UCSB College of Letters and Science, to delve into his interests at a far deeper level. Ultimately, Ghassan aims to bridge medicine and research into a fruitful career path.
Research Area
I’m interested in studying the complex relationship between space and life; more specifically how spaceflight affects biological systems. I am currently working with Dr. Joshi on two main projects. The first project involves the systematic assaying of various compounds stimulating the different modalities – taste, smell, spectral response, pH, salt concentration – for either attraction or aversion in tardigrades. The second focuses on studying certain tardigrade-specific proteins (Dsup and similar orthologs) that are associated with increased resistance to DNA damage.