This document was last modified on
© PhD Students Symposium 2005. All rights reserved.
Dr. David Cullen
Cranfield Biotechnology Centre, Cranfield University, United Kingdom
At present there is great interest in the question ``is there Life on Mars?'' One approach to answer this question is to find traces of organic molecules in the Martian environment whose presence cannot be explained without the implication of Life. The detection of such traces of Life requires in situ measurements to be made by instruments on Martian landers and rovers. The breadth of possible organic ``biomarkers'' of Life is large and therefore given the constraints of size, mass, and power consumption for in situ instruments, future planned mission are looking to novel instruments that offer complementary measurement to the established chromatography / mass spectrometry approaches. A combination of the developments in the biotechnology sector of DNA chips and related protein and antibody chips that offer parallel analysis of multiple analytes and the development of in situ biosensor technologies such as glucose sensors for diabetics and pregnancy tests offer intriguing possibilities for trace organic molecule detection on Mars. Thus a small number of groups are working towards the development of Martian lander instrumentation that utilise antibody micro-array technology for detection of trace organics / biomarkers in the Martian environment (and other extreme environments on Earth). Within the astrobiology context, such approaches have been termed ``Life Marker Chips'' (LMC). This presentation will summarise the background to organics / biomarker detection on Mars, the technology of LMC and the unique multi-disciplinary challenges that arise in such undertakings.