The detection of chemical biomarkers that provide data on the origin of life or that are signatures of extinct or extant life elsewhere in the solar system, depends on the development of methods and apparatus that can detect a wide variety of chemical/biochemical species, that can be integrated into portable analyzers, and that have the sensitivity actually needed to detect trace biomarker residues. We have focused on microfluidic technology because it provides the unique ability to develop chemical analysis systems for sample processing, labeling and high sensitivity detection that are both small and robust enough for space exploration. Thus we developed the Mars Organic Analyzer, which demonstrated high sensitivity detection of amino acids both in the lab and in the barren Atacama Desert.  In subsequent work, the sensitivity was increased using Pacific Blue labeling making this system the most sensitive analytical device for detecting organic amines and amino acids and the utility was increased further by developing automated chemical methods for analyzing aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.       To demonstrate the capabilities of the MOA, we recently completed a collaborative experiment with the Kaiser Group in Hawaii examining interstellar ice models made up of CO2, NH3, and hydrocarbons that have been irradiated with high energy electrons that simulate galactic cosmic rays.  Irradiation under UHV conditions at 10 K induces amide bond-like IR absorption features in the sample films; subsequent extraction, labeling and analysis with the MOA demonstrates that amino acids and at least Gly-Gly and Leu-Ala dipeptides are formed in quantities that can be readily detected by the MOA.   This work suggests that, once produced, extraterrestrial polypeptides could have inseminated early Earth via comets and meteorites and catalyzed its biological evolution.  See Kaiser, R. I, et al., Astrophysical Journal. 765 :111, March 10, 2013.

On the use of microfluidic chemical and biochemical analysis devices to detect dipeptides synthesized in interstellar model ices

246th National Meeting (2013)

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