Automated Recovery and Isolation of Extraterrestrial Lipids (ARIEL)

LMT proposes to design an instrument for the Automated Recovery and Isolation of Extraterrestrial Lipids (ARIEL) instrument. ARIEL is a sample processing module that can isolate and concentrate fatty acids and amino acids from complex sample matrices (solid, liquid or mixed-phase). It provides concentrated samples cleaned of mineral grains, dissolved ions, and other non-target molecules to enhance detection limits, speciation, and avoids sample degradation during pyrolysis (or other) steps that analytical instruments may employ. ARIEL uses a combination of low-temperature ultrasonic assisted extraction (UAE), solid phase extraction SPE and novel engineering to outperform other sample processing instruments that otherwise expose the analytes to high-temperatures and pressures; are not compatible with organic solvents; only extract medium- and long-chain fatty acids; fail to isolate amino acids, and/or cannot process solid samples. ARIEL overcomes those challenges by operating as follows: a sample is first processed by two sequential ultrasonically-assisted solvent extractions with solvents chosen to target different analytes: (1) amino acids and short-chain fatty acids and (2) medium- and large-chain fatty acids. For each extraction step, the solvent and extracted analytes are filter-separated from the solids and passed through SPE columns that isolate and concentrate: (1) amino acids and short-chain fatty acids; and (2) medium- and large-chain fatty acids. Separate elution steps will be carried out on each column so that ARIEL will output concentrated (and de-salted) samples ready for analysis.nbsp;nbsp;