?? Could Mars dirt support life? Pioneer Labs' new post dives into crafting a soluble Mars regolith media (sMRM-Phx) to explore biology’s future on Mars. From toxins to nutrients, this recipe is a big step for astro-microbiology. ???? Key points: ?? We have limited data — With only one direct measurement of soluble Mars regolith (from the Phoenix Lander in 2008), our understanding relies heavily on modeling and analogues. ?? We composed a media recipe — By averaging data from Phoenix and two Mars simulants, we created a chemically defined media (sMRM-Phx) to simulate Martian soil’s nutrient profile for biological assays. ?? Purpose-built for microbes — Unlike older simulants designed to test rover tires, this one is engineered for experiments to see if microbes could thrive and provide vital resources for astronauts. Dive into the details and share your thoughts: https://lnkd.in/eq9wj6N6 #SpaceBiology #MarsISRU #Astrobiology #PioneerLabs
关于我们
We're a nonprofit startup on a mission to engineer microbes for Mars ??. Let's make biomanufacturing ubiquitous, reliable, and green — on Earth and beyond! ???? pioneer-labs.org
- 网站
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pioneer-labs.org
Pioneer Labs的外部链接
- 所属行业
- 生物技术研究
- 规模
- 2-10 人
- 类型
- 非营利机构
- 创立
- 2024
Pioneer Labs员工
动态
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Pioneer's first proof of concept experiment checks out. We transferred a Mars-relevant property from one microbe to another. ???? Check it out in our substack post, complete with link-outs to our lab notes. ???? https://lnkd.in/ebgAhpZ9 How'd we do it? ? Most strain engineering techniques today focus on deletions. These techniques randomly mutagenize or drop large cassettes to the genome at random places. This is like flipping all the light switching on and off randomly and seeing if a diffferent set of ONs is better ???? ?? In nature, microbes don't just delete things to evolve. They have sex! Horizontal gene transfer is a major driver of microbial evolution. Instead of evolving new genes from scratch, grab them from your neighbor! ???? To make a Mars microbe, we'll do the same. Pioneer is creating a platform for mimicking horizontal gene transfer so that we can mix-and-match properties of microbes In our first test, we successfully transferred salt tolerance traits from a extreme halophile to E coli. We fragmented a halophilic genome ??, built functional libraries ???and selected them ?? to find genes that measurably ?? improved salt tolerance??! Read about it here, comment, and follow along by subscribing.
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Follow along as we engineer microbes for Mars. ???? Check out our open science update, complete with direct links to the primary literature - our lab notebooks! ?? Traction has been achieved! We can reliably measure salt tolerance ????. That's step 1 toward being able to engineer microbes custom-made for Mars that can thrive in salty, toxic soil. ?? https://lnkd.in/eDw6acu4
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It's time to launch! Join us as we engineer microbes for Mars - we're hiring ?? ?? We have two open roles and more to come, check out our job postings for: - Bioinformatics scientist: https://lnkd.in/eiUM65HS - Senior Microbiology Research Associate https://lnkd.in/eCUmD4Mk Interested in working with us, but don't see your desired role listed? Sign up to get updates on new open roles. https://lnkd.in/ec4kPS5b
Resident @ The Astera Institute | CEO of Pioneer Labs | Co-Founder of The Align Foundation
Introducing Pioneer Labs, a startup engineering microbes for Mars ???? www.pioneer-labs.org Pioneer started almost exactly two years ago, when Devon Stork, PhD and I got coffee and speculated about whether we could engineer a microbe that could terraform Mars ?? ?? https://lnkd.in/eFakqFTS Since then, a lot has happened. We found our third awesome co-founder, Una Nattermann. We got connected to a whole world of other amazing scientists, including Samantha "Pixie" Piszkiewicz, PhD, Nils Averesch, Charles Cockell, and the folks at DARPA’s B-SURE program ?? We spent more than a year digging into the big questions. Biology is the ultimate green technology ??, capable of upcycling waste into food, water, and air: all the essentials. So why ISN’T it used in space science ??, where we need a real, honest-to-god circular economy ??? Today we’re introducing Pioneer Labs, a startup engineering microbes for Mars ????. We’re creating hardy critters that perform gracefully even in the extreme conditions of space ??. By doing so, we aim to make biomanufacturing ubiquitous, reliable, and green — on Earth and beyond ??. ???? Want to help? We’re hiring. Check out our website for open roles or to sign up to be notified when new positions open. We’re based in Potrero Hill, San Francisco. https://lnkd.in/e_z8Gq8y Thanks so much to the people who helped us along the way ??! Pioneer is a nonprofit startup supported by funding from the Astera Institute, and is a pilot project of Align to Innovate. Many of the project concepts were incubated at The Francis Crick Institute And finally, Thank you so much to Seemay Chou, Tom Kalil, Megan Blewett, and the extended family of nonprofit startups at Convergent Research, Homeworld Collective, Speculative Technologies, and FutureHouse for all of the advice and support ??