Chris Mason

Mason earned a dual B.S. in genetics and biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001 and a Ph.D. in genetics from Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Its predecessor, the Collegiate School, received a charter in 1701. Trustees chose New Haven in 1716; the institution became Yale College in 1718 and Yale University in 1887. Yale provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education and has 14 undergraduate residential colleges. As of October 2026, its president was Maurie McInnis, who took office in July 2024. In 2026, Yale expanded aid for incoming undergraduates and celebrated its 325th anniversary.Open the full entry in 2006.⁠[1]

In 2009 he completed postdoctoral training in clinical genetics at Yale Medical School while also a postdoctoral fellow of genomics, ethics and law at Yale Law School.⁠[1]

The PathoMap project began in June 2013, with the team swabbing DNA from turnstiles, benches and handrails across the New York City subway.⁠[2]

He was named a Vallee Scholar in 2014; his other honours include the NIH Transformative R01 Award, the NASA Group Achievement Award and the International Space Station R&D Award.⁠[3]

In March 2014, then an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell, he received a three-year NASA grant to study changes in the DNA and RNA of Scott Kelly, due to spend a year on the International Space Station, and his Earth-bound twin Mark Kelly; NASA awarded 10 principal investigators a combined $1.5 million.⁠[4]

On February 5, 2015, as senior investigator, he published PathoMap, a map of New York subway microbes, in Cell Systems, saying most of the 637 known species detected were harmless but that they included drug-resistant pathogens and DNA fragments associated with anthrax and bubonic plague.⁠[2]

A New York City Health Department spokesperson called the report “deeply flawed” and its interpretation misleading; Mason said most of the organisms were harmless and that bacteria such as anthrax are found at low levels in normal environments.⁠[5]

After doctors from the CDC and the New York City Health Department questioned the paper’s anthrax and plague findings, the authors issued a correction in July 2015, revising the text and stating there was no strong evidence the organisms were present; Mason said the criticism concerned interpretation rather than analysis and that the paper would not be retracted.⁠[6]

In 2015 he and Evan Afshin founded MetaSUB (Metagenomics and Metadesign of Subways and Urban Biomes) to sample microbes in cities worldwide; it began with 16 cities and had more than 100 by 2021.⁠[7]

In May 2016, then an associate professor, he received a Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research for a proposal on single-cell resolution of leukemia’s epigenetic evolution during therapy.⁠[8]

In April 2019 the final results of NASA’s Twins Study were published in Science; as a co-author, Mason said immune-system genes were especially affected, putting the system “almost on high alert.”⁠[9]

He said that over 90 percent of the gene changes seen during Kelly’s mission returned to baseline after his return to Earth.⁠[10]

In April 2021 the MIT Press published his The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds, which lays out a ten-phase program from 2010 to 2500 for using genetic engineering to help humans reach other worlds.⁠[11]

In the book he argues that missions to other planets are a “necessary duty for humanity.”⁠[12]

On May 26, 2021, as senior author, he published a MetaSUB study in Cell based on nearly 5,000 samples from 60 cities in 32 countries, identifying about 12,000 previously unknown bacteria and viruses and mapping urban antimicrobial resistance.⁠[7]

He appeared on episode 283 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, whose description calls him a professor of genomics, physiology and biophysics at CornellCornell UniversityCornell University is a private research university in Ithaca, New York, and a member of the Ivy League. It is New York State's federal land-grant university, a distinction unique within the Ivy League. Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White founded the university in 1865, and it opened in 1868. In addition to its Ithaca campus, Cornell operates Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Tech in New York City and a medical college in Qatar. It enrolled 26,793 students in fall 2024. Its president is Michael I. Kotlikoff.Open the full entry researching the long-term effects of space on the human body; topics included extinction awareness, Scott Kelly, adapting to space, colonizing planets, commercial spaceflight, war in space, the Extreme Microbiome Project and mortality.⁠[13]

On August 22, 2023, the MIT Press published The Age of Prediction: Algorithms, AI, and the Shifting Shadows of Risk, written with Igor Tulchinsky, on AI- and data-driven prediction and its paradoxical effects on how we understand risk.⁠[14]

On June 11, 2024, results of the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), which he led with Afshin Beheshti, were published; more than 100 investigators from over two dozen countries took part, increasing human spaceflight data tenfold. He had been principal investigator for clinical and multi-omics research on the Inspiration4 crew.⁠[15]

He is professor of physiology and biophysics, professor of computational genomics in computational biomedicine, professor of neuroscience at the Brain and Mind Research Institute, and WorldQuant Professor of Genomics and Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.⁠[16]

He is also a co-founder of Onegevity/Thorne and Biotia; he lives with his wife and daughter in Brooklyn, New York.⁠[3]

Personal website: Public link: https://masonlab.net/ (opens in a new window)⁠[13]

X: Public account: https://x.com/mason_lab (opens in a new window)⁠[13]

Weill Cornell Medicine: Official website: https://weill.cornell.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[15]

Onegevity: Official website: https://onegevity.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[13]