J. Craig Venter may have just started a race to discover alien life on the Red Planet. <\/p>\n
Hot place: Some biologists want to send a DNA sequencing machine to Mars to search for life. <\/p>\n
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 his company, Synthetic Genomics, would develop a machine capable of sequencing and beaming back DNA data from the planet. <\/p>\n
Separately, Jonathan Rothberg, founder of Ion Torrent, a DNA sequencing company, is collaborating on an effort to equip his company's \"Personal Genome Machine\" for a similar task. <\/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 a 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. <\/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 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 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 extraterrestrial genomes.\" <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Read the original here: J. Craig Venter may have just started a race to discover alien life on the Red Planet. Hot place: Some biologists want to send a DNA sequencing machine to Mars to search for life Continue reading
\nGenome Hunters Go After Martian DNA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"