Further Extraction Protocols for the Life Marker Chip (Q1 2009)

生命标记芯片的进一步提取方案（2009 年第一季度）

• 批准号: ST/G008302/1
• 负责人: Mark Sephton
• 金额: $ 2.99万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FG008302%2F1
• 关键词: Further; Extraction; Protocols; Life; Marker

Broad and diverse sections of society engage with the question 'are we, that is Life on Earth, unique or if given appropriate conditions, does Life appear throughout the Universe?' Within our Solar System, we have the opportunity to address this question by visiting locations such as Mars that within our current understanding offer possible environments conducive to Life. Finding of evidence of Life on Mars that is independent of Life on Earth would give a strong indication that Life should be commonplace throughout the Universe. Such a finding would change forever humankind's view of our place in the cosmos. The use of space missions to place scientific instruments on the surface of Mars to search for evidence of Life, both preserved evidence of ancient Life and possible present Life gives us a way to address this question. The European Space Agency's ExoMars mission plans to place a rover on the Martian surface by the middle of the next decade with a primary goal of understanding the possibility of Life on Mars and searching for evidence of such. As part of the instrument suite within the proposed ExoMars rover are a number of instruments that are focused at detecting evidence of Life by searching for certain organic molecules possibly present at trace levels in the Martian environment. The nature of such molecules is that if present in the Martian environment, their presence could only be explained by the existence of Life to produce them: such molecules are called biomarkers. Therefore detection of such molecules would be a very strong indication of the presence of Life. One of the possible instruments within the instrument suite is a novel instrument in the context of space exploration and called the Life Marker Chip (LMC). The LMC exploits of a number of technologies that have been developed within other non-space applications and especially within the healthcare sector. Within healthcare, the detection of trace organic molecules is commonplace in the diagnosis of disease and is often reliant upon the use of biological assay such as those exploiting protein molecules such an antibodies. Well-known examples of such an approach are pregnancy testing kits. Such an approach, suitably developed for use on the surface of Mars, would enable a diverse range of organic molecule biomarkers to be detected in a compact and low mass instrument if multiple antibodies could be incorporated. A UK led international team has been exploring such an LMC technology and has been chosen in a separate review process by ESA to develop a LMC instrument for the ExoMars mission. Thus the overall objective of this project is to ultimately build a LMC instrument to be delivered to ESA and flown on the ExoMars mission. The programme of work will comprise (i) designing and developing the instrument hardware, (ii) production of antibodies required to detect biomarkers, (iii) using the antibodies in developing antibody assays that detect biomarkers, (iv) integrating the assays into the LMC hardware, (v) designing and producing a sample processing module that will extract the biomarkers from Martian rock and soil samples delivered by the rover to the LMC, (vi) validating the LMC instrument in laboratory trials and (vii) demonstrating the LMC instrument can be produced in a clean and sterile form that will not take Earth Life to Mars and contaminate the Martian environment and give false signal of Life on Mars. The instrument should have a mass of less than 2kg. Outputs of the LMC instrument together with the outputs from the other instrument within the rover will address specific scientific objectives such as is there (i) evidence of preserved ancient Life, (ii) evidence of short-lived biomarkers associated with current Martian Life and (iii) presence of other organic molecules that are not produced by Life but that will inform us about other aspects of the history and current nature of the Martian environment.

社会的广阔而多样化的部分与这个问题相吻合：“我们是地球上的生活，独特的还是适当的条件，生活在整个宇宙中会出现吗？”在我们的太阳系中，我们有机会通过访问当前理解中的火星等地点来解决这个问题，提供了有利于生活的可能环境。发现与地球上生命无关的火星生命的证据将有很大的迹象表明生活应该在整个宇宙中很普遍。这样的发现将永远改变人类对我们在宇宙中的位置的看法。使用太空任务将科学工具放在火星表面上寻找生命的证据，保留了古代生活的证据和可能的当前生活证据，这使我们有一种解决这个问题的方法。欧洲航天局的EXOMARS任务计划在未来十年中期将漫游者放在火星表面上，其主要目标是了解火星上生命的可能性并寻找这种证据。作为拟议的Exomars Rover中仪器套件的一部分，是许多工具，这些工具专注于通过寻找可能存在于火星环境中痕量水平的某些有机分子来检测生命的证据。这种分子的性质是，如果存在于火星环境中，只有生命的存在才能解释它们：这种分子称为生物标志物。因此，对这种分子的检测将是生命存在的非常有力的迹象。仪器套件中可能的工具之一是在太空探索的背景下的一种新型工具，称为Life Marker Chip（LMC）。在其他非空间应用程序（尤其是医疗保健领域）中开发的许多技术的LMC利用。在医疗保健中，痕量有机分子的检测在疾病的诊断中很普遍，并且通常依赖于使用生物学测定，例如利用蛋白质分子的生物测定法。这种方法的众所周知的例子是妊娠测试套件。如果可以合并多种抗体，则这种方法是适当开发的，可在火星表面上使用，可以在紧凑型和低质量仪器中检测到各种各样的有机分子生物标志物。英国领导的国际团队一直在探索这种LMC技术，并在ESA的单独审核过程中选择了为Exomars任务开发LMC仪器。因此，该项目的总体目的是最终建立一种LMC工具，将交付给ESA并在Exomars任务上飞行。 The programme of work will comprise (i) designing and developing the instrument hardware, (ii) production of antibodies required to detect biomarkers, (iii) using the antibodies in developing antibody assays that detect biomarkers, (iv) integrating the assays into the LMC hardware, (v) designing and producing a sample processing module that will extract the biomarkers from Martian rock and soil samples delivered by the rover to the LMC，（vi）在实验室试验中验证LMC仪器和（vii）证明LMC仪器可以以干净且无菌的形式生产，这不会使地球生命带给火星并污染火星环境并在火星上发出虚假的生命信号。该仪器的质量应小于2kg。 Outputs of the LMC instrument together with the outputs from the other instrument within the rover will address specific scientific objectives such as is there (i) evidence of preserved ancient Life, (ii) evidence of short-lived biomarkers associated with current Martian Life and (iii) presence of other organic molecules that are not produced by Life but that will inform us about other aspects of the history and current nature of the Martian environment.