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Completed TRL 3 (started at 2, targeting 3)
Key NASA technology gaps in sampling and bioreduction address recommendations in the 2013 Planetary Science Decadal Survey, the Space Biology Science plan, & the 2019 Planetary Protection (PP) Board Report. We will develop facile efficient PP methods compatible with spacecraft materials and assemblies using peelable polymer coatings that remove biota and contamination rather than sterilize them. We hypothesize creating a family of paintable polymers for facile quantitative biological/biomolecular sampling, contamination reduction, isolation & femtogram DNA replication. The proposed innovation enables surface cleaning, bioburden reduction, sterilization, sampling, & cross-contamination prevention for spacecraft materials, components, and assemblies. Our films capture, store, & allow colonization of spores -promising a polymer-based microbiological archival storage from cleaned surfaces with order-of-magnitude increased sampling efficiency. These solutions impact bioburden control and elimination & control of forward & backward contamination. They also will significantly improve sampling devices & sample processing and analysis pipelines. Our objectives are fourfold: Objective 1: Design and synthesize biocompatible designer polymers to lift and sequester biota and biomolecules. Objective 2: Using qPCR and spectrophotometric DNA quantification on our Nanodrop instruments, we will determine the trace DNA detection limits on recovery from glass surfaces using our polymer technology. Objective 3: Replication and verification of DNA Reduction from our preliminary data: Using qPCR and spectrophotometric DNA quantification, we will replicate and verify the initial data on DNA detection and recovery on surfaces. Objective 4: Replication and statistical analysis of reduction, sampling, recovery and isolation of spores on surfaces to confirm our preliminary results as preparation for Phase II with our samples of ISS bacteria and fungi we have from the JPL Space Biology Archive.
Our “apply, dry, and peel” polymers will allow surface-specific facile Planetary Protection (PP) methods for bioburden reduction, sterilization, sampling, and cross-contamination prevention; quantitative biological/biomolecular contamination reduction; and ultimately rendering important aerospace surfaces bio-contamination-free. This includes spacecraft materials, components, and assemblies. Additional potential applications include "space preparation" and PP- compliance of hard-to-clean structures such as bulk metallic glass (BMG) gears.
Post-SBIR commercialization will focus on, e.g., medical, pharmaceutical, and scientific research markets, creating and maintaining sterile and bio-contamination-free surfaces, enabling isolation and femtogram DNA replication in forensics, and providing microbiological archival storage from cleaned surfaces with orders-of-magnitude increased sampling efficiency.
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