Draft:Sylvain V. Costes

Sylvain V. Costes is a dual French-American scientist and researcher known for his work in computational biology, radiation biophysics, and spatial statistics in fluorescent microscopy images. He is best known for developing the Costes Colocalization Method, a widely used algorithm for quantifying protein colocalization in microscopy images. Costes was the former Chief of the Space Biosciences Research Branch at NASA Ames Research Center. He is currently the Project Manager for Open Science at the Biological and Physical Sciences Division at NASA and the Editor-in-Chief of Integrative Biology, a journal published by Oxford University Press.

Education

Costes completed his Diplôme d'Ingénieur in Physics from Grenoble INP – Phelma in France, before pursuing a M.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University. He earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on radiation biology and computational modeling. During his Ph.D., Costes pioneered bioinformatics and computational biology methods while working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) under the mentorship of Dr. Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff.

Career Early Career

After completing his Ph.D., Costes conducted his postdoctoral research in the Mathematics Department at UC Berkeley with Professor Rainer Sachs, where he focused on quantitative biology and DNA damage modeling¹. He subsequently joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he developed state-of-the-art technologies for live cell imaging using GFP-tagged proteins and advanced techniques such as FRAP, FRET, and FCS. It was during his time at NCI that he developed the Costes Colocalization Method², a groundbreaking algorithm for measuring protein-protein interactions in microscopy images, which became a seminal advancement in the field.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Costes returned to LBNL as a career scientist in 2004, where he led the modeling effort in the NASA’s Specialized Center of Research and the biodosimetry effort for the Low Dose Radiation Program at the Department of Energy (DOE). His research focused on the use of radiation biomarkers such as γ-H2AX, 53BP1, and other DNA damage markers in fluorescence microscopy and radiation-induced cancer modeling³. Costes was one of the leading scientists to demonstrate the relocation of DNA double-strand breaks to DNA repair centers in mammalian cells⁴ and in drosophila⁵. This discovery has had significant implications for understanding the risks associated with space radiation exposure^6-8.

Entrepreneurship experience

In 2012, Costes co-founded Exogen Biotechnology Inc. where he served as CEO and later as CSO, leading efforts to develop personalized health tools to assess genetic repair capacity and baseline DNA damage levels9. His entrepreneurial work earned him the prestigious Berkeley Visionary Award in 2014.

NASA

Costes joined NASA Ames Research Center in 2016, where he led the Space Biosciences Research Branch for three years. He has been the Project Manager for Open Science for the past 8 years, overseeing GeneLab¹⁰, now part of the Open Science Data Repository (OSDR)¹¹. OSDR integrates all biological and medical data from space biology experiments, including data from high-profile missions such as Inspiration4^12,13. Costes also co-leads NASA's AI/ML modeling initiatives for space biosciences, focusing on multi-omics analysis for spaceflight and biomedical applications^14,15. In addition, Costes represents NASA on the White House Cancer Moonshot Taskforce, focusing on data integration for cancer research across federal agencies. His awards include the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal and the NASA Exceptional Achievement Award for his work in open science and space biology.

Costes’ work on DNA damage and radiation biology continues to shape the field, particularly with respect to astronaut health and space exploration risks.

Awards and Recognition

• NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (2021)
• NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal (2018)
• Berkeley Visionary Award (2014) for entrepreneurship and leadership at Exogen Biotechnology

See Also

• Costes Google Scholar
• Colocalization
• Omics
• Ionizing Radiation
• Ames Research Center
• Inspiration4
• Integrative Biology

REFERENCES (selected citations)

1. Costes, S. et al. Large-Mutation Spectra Induced at Hemizygous Loci by Low-LET Radiation: Evidence for Intrachromosomal Proximity Effects. Radiation Research 156, 545-557, doi:10.1667/0033-7587(2001)156[0545:Lmsiah]2.0.Co;2 (2001).
2. Costes, S. V. et al. Automatic and quantitative measurement of protein-protein colocalization in live cells. Biophys J 86, 3993-4003, doi:10.1529/biophysj.103.038422 (2004).
3. Neumaier, T. et al. Evidence for formation of DNA repair centers and dose-response nonlinearity in human cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 109, 443-448, doi:10.1073/pnas.1117849108 (2012).
4. Costes, S. V. et al. Image-based modeling reveals dynamic redistribution of DNA damage into nuclear sub-domains. PLoS Comput Biol 3, e155, doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030155 (2007).
5. Chiolo, I. et al. Double-strand breaks in heterochromatin move outside of a dynamic HP1a domain to complete recombinational repair. Cell 144, 732-744, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2011.02.012 (2011).
6. Pariset, E. et al. 53BP1 Repair Kinetics for Prediction of In Vivo Radiation Susceptibility in 15 Mouse Strains. Radiat Res 194, 485-499, doi:10.1667/RADE-20-00122.1 (2020).
7. Penninckx, S. et al. Dose, LET and Strain Dependence of Radiation-Induced 53BP1 Foci in 15 Mouse Strains Ex Vivo Introducing Novel DNA Damage Metrics. Radiat Res 192, 1-12, doi:10.1667/RR15338.1 (2019).
8. Heuskin, A. C., Osseiran, A. I., Tang, J. & Costes, S. V. Simulating Space Radiation-Induced Breast Tumor Incidence Using Automata. Radiat Res 186, 27-38, doi:10.1667/RR14338.1 (2016).
9. Pariset, E. et al. DNA Damage Baseline Predicts Resilience to Space Radiation and Radiotherapy. Cell Rep 33, 108434, doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108434 (2020).
10. Berrios, D. C., Galazka, J., Grigorev, K., Gebre, S. & Costes, S. V. NASA GeneLab: interfaces for the exploration of space omics data. Nucleic Acids Res 49, D1515-D1522, doi:10.1093/nar/gkaa887 (2021).
11. Sanders, L. M. et al. Celebrating 30 years of access to NASA Space Life Sciences data. GigaScience 13, doi:10.1093/gigascience/giae066 (2024).
12. Sanders, L. M. et al. Inspiration4 data access through the NASA Open Science Data Repository. NPJ Microgravity 10, 56, doi:10.1038/s41526-024-00393-5 (2024).
13. Costes, S. V., Gentemann, C. L., Platts, S. H. & Carnell, L. A. Biological horizons: pioneering open science in the cosmos. Nat Commun 15, 4780, doi:10.1038/s41467-024-48633-2 (2024).
14. Scott, R. T. et al. Biomonitoring and precision health in deep space supported by artificial intelligence. Nature Machine Intelligence 5, 196-207, doi:10.1038/s42256-023-00617-5 (2023).
15. Sanders, L. M. et al. Biological research and self-driving labs in deep space supported by artificial intelligence. Nature Machine Intelligence 5, 208-219, doi:10.1038/s42256-023-00618-4 (2023).