Efficient Surface Microbial Reduction on Hardware Using Polymers

Key NASA technology gaps in sampling andnbsp;bioreduction address recommendations in the 2013 Planetary Science Decadal Survey, the Space Biology Science plan, amp; the 2019 Planetary Protection (PP) Board Report. We will develop facile efficient PP methods compatible with spacecraft materials and assembliesnbsp;using peelable polymer coatings that remove biota and contamination rathernbsp;than sterilize them. We hypothesize creating a family of paintable polymers for facile quantitative biological/biomolecular sampling, contamination reduction, isolation amp; femtogram DNA replication. The proposed innovation enables surface cleaning, bioburden reduction, sterilization, sampling, amp; cross-contamination prevention for spacecraft materials, components, and assemblies. Our films capture, store, amp; 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 amp; control of forward amp; backward contamination. They also will significantly improve sampling devices amp; 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.