Two high-profile entrepreneurs say they want to put a DNA sequencing machine on the surface of Mars in a bid to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life. <\/p>\n
In what could become a race for the first extraterrestrial genome, researcher J. Craig Venter said Tuesday that his Maryland academic institute and company, Sythentic Genomics, would develop a machine capable of sequencing and beaming back DNA data from Mars. <\/p>\n
Separately, Jonathan Rothberg, founder of Ion Torrent, a DNA sequencing company, is collaborating on an effort to adapt his company's \"Personal Genome Machine\" for Martian conditions. <\/p>\n
\"We want to make sure an Ion Torrent goes to Mars,\" Rothberg told Technology Review. <\/p>\n
Although neither team yet has a berth on Mars rocket, their plans reflect the belief that the simplest way to prove there is life on Mars is to send a DNA sequencing machine to the planet. <\/p>\n
\"There will be DNA life forms there,\" Venter predicted Tuesday in New York, where he was speaking at the Wired Health Conference. <\/p>\n
Venter said researchers working with him have already begun tests at a Mars-like test site in the Mojave Desert. Their goal, he said, is to demonstrate a machine capable of autonomously isolating microbes from soil, sequencing their DNA, and then transmitting the information to a remote computer, as would be required on an unmanned Mars mission. (Hear his comments in this video, starting at 00:11:01). Heather Kowalski, a spokeswoman for Venter, confirmed the existence of the project, but also said the prototype system was \"not yet 100 percent robotic.\" <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Rothberg's Personal Genome Machine is being adapted for Martian conditions as part of a NASA-funded project at Harvard and MIT called SET-G, or \"the search for extra-terrestrial genomes.\" <\/p>\n
Christopher Carr, an MIT research scientist involved in the effort, says his lab is working to shrink Ion Torrent's machine from 30 kilograms down to just 3 kilograms so that it can fit on a NASA rover. Other tests, already conducted, have determined how well the device can withstand the heavy radiation it would encounter on the way to Mars. <\/p>\n
NASA, whose Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August, won't send another rover mission to the planet before at least 2018 (see \"The Mars Rover Curiosity Marks a Technological Triumph\"), and there's no guarantee a DNA sequencing device would go aboard. \"The hard thing about getting to Mars is hitting the NASA specifications,\" says George Church, a Harvard University researcher and a senior member of the SET-G team. \"[Venter] isn't ahead of anyone else.\" <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Originally posted here: Two high-profile entrepreneurs say they want to put a DNA sequencing machine on the surface of Mars in a bid to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life. Continue reading
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