LUNA LABS USA LLC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: H3

Description

NASArsquo;s plans to return to the moon and ultimately send astronauts to Mars requires unique technologies that can safeguard both the health and wellbeing of the crew during long-duration missions. One major threat to health and safety is the presence of microbial contaminants. Current methods for microbial monitoring in space are predominantly culture based, which requires returning samples to Earth for analysis. This causes an inherent delay in acquiring results and creates a bias towards culturable organisms. Recent advancements in microbial monitoring capabilities have been made onboard the International Space Station (ISS) using molecular sequencing technologies, and this allows for real-time analysis of microbial contaminants. However, these methods are highly manual and require a large amount of active crew time to complete. With the many tasks required of an astronaut crew, consistent use of such methods for frequent monitoring is not feasible. Therefore, there is a need for an automated, streamlined process to monitor microbial growth in real-time.To address this need, Luna Labs USA, LLC will develop the AutoEASE platform to enable automated preparation of DNA for nanopore sequencing. Our approach is centered around the use of a dissolvable swab previously developed at Luna Labs (NanoSwab) for effective capture and release of microbe samples. These samples can then be automatically processed using a microfluidic device designed to isolate, purify, and prepare DNA. Additionally, this system would be designed with the ability to process multiple samples and be compatible with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Overall, this technology will be designed as a drop-in solution to existing technologies validated on the ISS, while removing previous hurdles including low biomass environmental conditions, sample preparation time, and active crew effort.