SURVEY OF MICROBIAL ENVIRONMENT FOR CREW HEALTH AT THE MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION Samuel Albert, D. Marshall Porterfield Purdue University 4/14/2018 4/14/2018 1
OUTLINE • What is the Mars Desert Research Station? • Reflections on the 2-week mission • State of microbial monitoring for space habitats • Experiment overview: • Motivation Image: NASA • Procedure astronaut and Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold • Results works with the student- • Discussion designed Genes in Space-5 experiment • Future work inside the Harmony • Questions module. 4/14/2018 From @iss on Instagram, image credit to NASA 2
MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION • Mars analogue station in Utah, established by the Mars Society in 2001 • Mission: simulate living on Mars to support human mission to the Martian surface 4/14/2018 3
MEET CREW 186 – BOILERS2MARS • 7 member crew of Purdue students and alumni • First all-Purdue MDRS crew • 2 week rotation Dec. 30 th 2017 – Jan. 14 th 2018 4/14/2018 4
GENERAL REFLECTIONS ON MDRS 4/14/2018 5
MICROBIAL MONITORING ON ISS • Current process requires sample analysis on Earth • Additional limitations on culture-based methods • Requirement for next-gen microbial monitoring: non-culture-based monitoring hardware Image: excerpt from culture-based procedure Microbial Air Sampler Kit for use on ISS. From [1] 4/14/2018 6
GENES IN SPACE-3 • First identification of unknown microbes fully in space • Used sample-to-sequence method developed by microbiologists at JSC (PI: Dr. Sarah Wallace) • Combined Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing technology Image: NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson performed the Genes in Space-3 investigation aboard the space station using the miniPCR and MinION to identify unknown microbes on station. Credits: NASA 4/14/2018 7
MOTIVATION • Modified version of Genes in Space-3 procedure used at MDRS • Motivation: • Survey microbial environment at MDRS • Provide data directly comparable with ISS results • Further examine “usability” of procedure and methods for an untrained user • Collaboration with Dr. Sarah Wallace and Sarah Stahl at JSC enabled use of the same procedure and hardware as on the ISS (miniPCR and MinION) 4/14/2018 8
PROCEDURE • Swab surface of interest • Isolate and amplify DNA using miniPCR • Sequence DNA using MinION • Base-call and analyze results post-mission Image: me in the Science Dome at MDRS using a micropipette to transfer samples 4/14/2018 9
TEST LOCATIONS • 4 runs total • 3 runs in normal living space (living room door knob, fridge handle, bathroom sink, etc.) • 1 run in GreenHab, using GreenHab Officer Mark Gee’s experiment setup Image: working with Mark to sample from each trial in the GreenHab 4/14/2018 10
RESULTS SUMMARY • Living areas: • Few quality reads of DNA • Low biomass • Bacteria part of normal human environment, such as staphylococcus and streptococcus (also found on ISS!) • Greenhab: • Many quality reads of DNA • High biomass • Some pathogenic bacteria, in family Enterobacteriaceae 4/14/2018 11
CONCLUSIONS • Low bacterial growth in living areas, not harmful bacteria • High bacterial growth in GreenHab experiment, harmful to humans • Procedure was effective and not overly time- consuming Image: Mark giving a tour of the GreenHab. These plants were isolate from the experiment. 4/14/2018 12
FUTURE WORK • Further validation of these results • Further testing at MDRS • More testing on ISS and other analogue stations • Long-term goal: broad comparison study of isolated space (or space-analogue) habitats Image: loading the miniPCR in the Science Dome 4/14/2018 13
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS • Dr. Sarah Wallace and Sarah Stahl of NASA Johnson Space Center • The rest of MDRS Crew 186 – Boilers 2 Mars • Purdue chapter of the Mars Society for organizing the formation of Crew 186 • Purdue Honors College, Purdue Engineering Student Council, the Purdue chapter of Women in Engineering, Purdue Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Purdue Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue Global Engineering Program, and Mars Academy USA. 4/14/2018 14
REFERENCES [1] Pierson, D. L., Ott, C. M., Botkin, D. J., Bruce, R. J., Castro, V. A., Smith, M. J., and Oubre , C. M., “Microbial Monitoring of the International Space Station,” Environmental Monitoring: A Comprehensive Handbook , J. Moldenhauer, ed., Bethesda, MD: Davis Healthcare International Publishing, LLC, 2012, pp. 1 – 27. 4/14/2018 15
QUESTIONS? 4/14/2018 16
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