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  1. Projects

    Below are the abstracts of proposals selected for funding for the Astrobiology: Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology program from the ROSES 07 call for proposals (awarded 2008). Principal Investigator (PI) name, institution, and proposal title are also included. 114 proposals were received in response to this opportunity, and 33 were selected for funding.
    PI
    Title
    Deep-water Microbialites in a Perennially Ice-covered Lake: A Key to Interpreting Ancient Microbialite Morphology (2)
    Prebiotic Routes to Carbohydrates Involving Borate Minerals (2)
    An experimental study of the generation and enantiomeric enrichment of sugars and amino acids in cometary impacts (2)
    The Evolution of Photosynthesis and the Transition from an Anaerobic to an Aerobic World
    Archean paleobarometry (2)
    Thermal Behavior and Detection of Caves on Earth and Mars (2)
    Leaping to land -- physiology and phylogenetics of microscopic desert green algae (2)
    Signatures of Life in Ice (SLIce): A multidisciplinary investigation of organic signatures and habitat of life in surface glacial ice (2)
    Exploiting paleogenetics and experimental-evolution to reconstruct and recapitulate adaptive evolution (2)
    Dynamic Covalent Assembly and Selection of Prebiotically Plausible Informational Oligomers (2)
    ELEMENTAL, ISOTOPIC, AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF EARTH'S EARLIEST LIFE: Implications for Recognizing Remnants of Early Microbial Life on Earth and Elsewhere (2)
    Exploration of Mineral Associated Bio/organic Signatures: Meeting the Challenge in the Search for Signs of Life (2)
    Quantifying the Habitability of Low-Temperature Serpentinizing Systems (2)
    Intercalation Mediated Assembly and the First Informational Polymers of Life (2)
    Cerro Negro, Nicaragua: An analog for assessing the potential for life on early Mars (2)
    Organic Biomarkers: Community Diversity and Preservation in Silica-Rich Hydrothermal Systems with Implications to Mars (2)
    Chemistry of Biomarkers in Planetary Ices: A Laboratory Investigation (2)
    A Laboratory Investigation on the Origin and Evolution of Life (2)
    Chemistry of Biomarkers in Planetary Ices: A Laboratory Investigation (3)
    A Laboratory Investigation on the Origin and Evolution of Life (3)
    Habitable Planets: Oxygen and Climate (2)
    Measuring the abundance of the simplest functional RNAs (2)
    Prebiotic formation of membranes and the role of membranes in energy uptake: An essential step in the origin of protocellular life (2)
    Investigating the Formation, Stability and Enantiomeric Ratios of Non-Protein Amino Acids in Low-Temperature Condensed-Phase Reactions (2)
    Survival, Growth, and Evolution of Terrestrial Bacteria in Martian Environments (2)
    Genome-based Investigations into the Nature of the Common Ancestor of the Thermotogales (2)
    Carbonaceous associations with apatite in Precambrian banded iron formations (2)
    Biosignatures in Volcanic Rocks - Microweathering of Olivine on Earth and Mars (2)
    Effects of radiation damage on the geology of Europa and Ganymede (2)
    The Molecular Basis of Complexity: Using Network Analysis to Understand Evolution (2)
    Borrowing Biological Innovation: HGT in an Ancient Mariene Heterotroph (2)
    Temperature effects on protein evolution (2)
    Origins and Functional Potential in Complex Prebiological Molecules: Titan Tholins and related Organics (2)
    Biological Accumulation of D-amino acids in Endolithic Microbial Communities (2)
    Mars Subsurface Warming at Low Obliquity: Effects on the State and Distribution of Water (2)
    Current and Past Projects
    PI
    Title
    Sub-award from: Do Bugs Survive When Worlds Collide (C. Blank)
    Mechanisms of Molybdenum Isotope Fractionation: Assessing a New Tool for the Study of Ancient Ocean Redox
    In search of early oxygen: Investigation of redox sensitive metal abundances and isotopes in Neoarchean drill cores
    Search for traces of life in Earth's oldest rocks
    A Prebiotic Photochemical Study of Early Earth
    Methanogenesis in Hypersaline Environments: The Use of Carbon and Hydrogen Isotopic Signatures to Evaluate the Biogenicity of Methane in a Mars Analogue Environment and on Mars
    Traces of Catastrophe at the End Permian
    Exploring Plausibly Prebiotic Routes to Ribonucleosides. Borate minerals, water-poor environments, and organic chemistry that connect the interstellar medium to the RNA world.
    Resurrecting Src Homology 2 Domains Near the Origin of Multicellularity. Resurrecting Phosphotyrosine-Binding Proteins and Their Binding Phosphorylated Partners. Co-Evolution of Signal Transduction Paths Involved in Metazoan Multicellularity
    Reconstructing Ancient Life
    A Laboratory Study of Low-Temperature Ice Photo-Chemistry as a Contributor to the Chemical, Chiral, and Isotopic Diversity of Meteoritic Amino Acids
    Laboratory Studies of Interstellar and Solar System Radiation Processing as a Source of Organic Molecules
    Endosymbiotic Gene Transfer and the Evolution of the First Photosynthetic Eukaryotes
    The evolution of photosynthesis and the transition from an anaerobic to an aerobic world (2)
    NESSF (Chu): Experimental investigations of photochemically-generated organic aerosols and implications for climate, habitability, and the search for life on early Mars and early Earth
    Biotic Recovery After Mass Extinction: Ecological Response to the Cretaceous/Paleogene Boundary Event (1)
    Distribution, origins and parent body processing of carbonaceous material in chondritic meteorites: Insights from in situ characterization using energy filtered transmission electron microscopy
    Organic Synthesis in Hypervelocity Impacts
    Metamorphism of Archean biosignatures: constraining the appearance of life on Earth and the search for fossils on Mars
    DESCOPE: Metabolic Kinase Ribozymes to Model RNA World Enzymology and Evolution (Aims 2 & 3 only)
    Recognizing the Signatures of Thermophilic Biofilms: Cellularly Preserved Microfossils and Cellular Remnants
    What are the Mg Isotopic-Signals for Photosynthesis?
    Evolution of Biogeochemical Cycles and the Earth's Early Atmosphere
    Upper Triassic Mass Extinction Event: Study Of 214 Ma And 201 Ma Rocks On The Colorado Plateau
    Interstellar Precursors of Meteoritic Organics - A Theoretical Study
    Enantiomeric and Isotopic Analysis of sugar derivatives and recently discovered compounds in carbonaceous meteorites
    GSRP: Hydrogen's role in the production of organic hazes on early Earth and the outer planets; The effect of increased hydrogen mixing ratio on organic haze production on the early Earth
    GSRP: Resolving the biogenicity of Earth's oldest microfossils using electron energy-loss and X-ray absorption spectroscopies.
    Origin and function of membranes in primitive cellular life.
    Light Element Biogeochemistry of Microbial Communities in Evaporites
    ASASO Close-Out
    Molecular Basis for Adaptation to Extreme Environmental Conditions of Halophilic Microorganisms
    Engineering Technologies for Extremophiles
    New Pathways for the Formation of Complex Organics and Prebiotic Synthesis in the Gas Phase, in Nano Clusters, and on Dust Grain Surfaces
    DESCOPE: Biosignatures in Evolving Planetary Atmospheres (Tasks 1 & 2 only)
    Geomicrobiology and Fossil Biosignatures of Cold-Spring Carbonates (Tufas), Mono Lake (CA) and the Pleistocene Lahonton Basin
    Sulfur triple isotope stratigraphy of Archean Drill Core material
    Studies of Photochemical Processes on Titan
    [NSCORT] Origins of Life: From Interstellar Molecules to Introns
    Supernova Remnant--Heliosphere Collisions and Transport of Live Radioisotopes: Three Dimensional Simulations
    Carbon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen Identification and Characterization in Interplanetary Dust Particles: An Examination of Primitive Organic Matter from the Solar System and the Interstellar Medium
    DESCOPE: The Origins of Translation and Early Evolution of Life (Riboswitch module only)
    Bioinformatic Analysis of Genetic Coding
    Hydrogen in the Rock Column
    Inferring Ancient Local Environments Based on Resurrected Elongation Factor Proteins: From the Origins of Modern Bacteria to Eukaryotic Endosymbioses: Paleo-Evolutionary Genomics
    NESSF (Beierle): Potentially Prebiotic Peptide Based Oligomers for Dynamic Recognition of DNA and RNA
    DESCOPE: Carbon Chemistry of Martian Materials and Analogs (Task 2 only)
    Investigating the Distribution and Isotopic Composition of Purines and Pyrimidines in Carbonaceous Meteorites
    Exploration of Sequence Space and the Evolution of the Genetic Code
    Dynamics of Hydrothermal Plumes on Europa: Implications for Surface Geology and Potential Bioenergetics
    Nuclear-Magnetic Resonance and Electrical Measurements of Unfrozen Water in Mars-Analog Materials: Implications for Habitability at Subfreezing Temperatures on Mars
    The Longevity of Oceans on Terrestrial Planets
    Dust as a Vehicle for the Transfer of Organics Between Worlds
    Support for Exo/Evo users of Ames Vertical Gun Range
    Solid State NMR Studies of Prebiotic Scenarios
    Program Support: California Academy of Sciences Advisor
    Mediation of Early Microbial Evolution and Ecology by Cyanide Inhibition?
    Thioester-Centered Metabolic Systems Based on Catalytic RNA
    Compound-specific isotopic study of carbonaceous chondrites: implications for the origin of meteoritic organic compounds
    Intercalation and Reversible Backbone Linkages: A New Approach to the Origin and Replication of Life's First Informational Polymers
    Molecular and genetic investigations of RNA stability in hyperthermophilic Archaea
    Evolutionary Dynamics of Planetary Biodiversity Gradients: Origin, Maintenance and Future of Latitudinal Trends
    Quantum Chemistry Study of Prebiotic Geochemistry Mechanisms: Reduction Reactions on Mineral Surfaces
    Evolution of Catalytic RNA and the Origins of Life (Partial)
    Climate and Life on Early Earth and Mars
    A Stratigraphic Study of pCO2 Variations across Neoproterozoic Glacial Cycles through Ion Microprobe Carbon Isotope Analysis of Organic-Walled Microfossils
    Empirical Estimates of Proterozoic CO2 Levels by In-Situ Ion Microprobe Carbon Isotope Analysis of Organic-Walled Microfossils
    Geochemical Signatures of Biological Charge Transfer Processes
    Molecular fossils in Archean and Proterozoic sediments and metasediments: Multidimensional gas chromatography, high pressure catalytic hydrogenation and synthesis of butyloid standards. (Rephase?)
    Secular rise of clay minerals as a control on the rise off oxygen and advent of multicellular life
    Magnetofossils: A Novel Biosignature of Ancient Ecosystems
    Isotopic Paleotemperatures at Key Times in the Early History of Life
    Neoproterozoic evolution and environmental change: Integrated experimental and geological approaches
    Search for Potentially Primordial Genetic Systems.
    Development of generalized RNA recombinase ribozymes
    A Self-assembling Collectively Autocatalytic Set of RNA Oligomers
    NESSF (Burton): Selection in Vitro of a Ribonucleotide Reductase Ribozyme
    The Coupling of Outer Solar System Architectures to the Habitability, Hazards and Environment on Planets Near the Sun and Other Stars
    Molecular Mechanisms for the Persistence, Protection, and Repair of DNA and Proteins under Extreme Radiation, UV Light, and Dessicating Conditions
    Origin and implications of early Archean barite and associated sedimentary deposits in the 3.3-3.2 Ga Fig Tree Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa, and their relationship to major tectonic, impact, and environmental events
    Quantum chemical and chemical kinetics calculations of sulfur and sulfur exchange reactions related to mass-independent fractionation of sulfur isotopes
    Oxygen Isotope Composition of Carbonate-Associated Sulfate
    A Galactic Formaldehyde Survey to Identify the Galaxy's Habitable Zone
    The NASA Planetary Biology Internship Program (Year 2 funding issue...)
    Prebiotic Metabolic Systems Driven by Colloidal Semiconductor Photocatalysis
    The Evolution of the Regulation of Cell-Cell Adhesion in a Basal Metazoan
    Experimental Investigation of Prebiotic Organic Geochemistry in Hydrothermal Environments
    Presumptive Mineral and Morphological Biosignatures in Terrestrial Samples and Martian Meteorites
    Mars Sample Return Study
    Do Gamma Ray Bursts Damage Planetary Biospheres?
    Exploring the Late Heavy Bombardment
    Monitoring of environmental contamination
    A Novel Coenzyme F420-Dependent Sulfite Reductase from Methanocaldococcus Jannaschii: A Component of a Primitive Cell Biosynthesis and Detoxification System
    Investigating the Localization, Regulation and Biosynthesis of 2-Methylhopanoids (Inst. Xfer) (1)
    Microbially Induced Sedimentary Structures of Mesoarchean Ages - New Biosignatures for the Detection of Extraterrestrial Life [share w/ MFRP]
    Horizontal Gene Transfer Into and Among the Thermotogales: Occurrence and Functional Implications
    Natural, Iron-Silicate-Grain Catalyzed, Simultaneous, Fischer-Tropsch and Haber-Bosch Synthesis of Nitrogen-Bearing prebiotic Molecules in Protostellar Nebulae
    A Multi-Proxy Search for Atmospheric Oxygen in the 2.9 Ga Pongola Supergroup, Southern Africa
    DESCOPE: Continued Investigations of
    Acetylene as a Substrate for the Development of Anaerobic Microbial Ecosystems on Primordial Earth: Implications for Microbial Life on Planets and Satellites with Jovian/Titan-like Atmospheres.
    Non-Thermal Generation of Prebiotic and Complex Organic Molecules within Interstellar and Planetary Ices
    Reduced Phosphorus Assemblages as Sources of Reactive P the Origin and Evolution of Early Life
    Controls on Paleozoic Rates of Taxonomic Evolution: Ecology, Environment and Preservation
    Methane and sulfur in the Archean atmosphere. Organic and sulfur aerosols as UV-shields, "food" and climate drivers in the Archean environment.
    DESCOPE: The Origin and Evolution of Organic Material in the Interstellar Medium: From Stardust to Planetesimals (observations only)
    Search for Impact-Related Materials at the P-T Boundary
    METEORITIC AMINO ACIDS AS ASYMMETRIC CATALYSTS IN PREBIOTIC CHEMISTRY
    Computer Modeling of Protein-mediated Protocellular Functions
    Mechanisms and early evolution of protocellular transport
    Using Skeletal Microstructure to Understand Early Animal Biomineralization and Phylogenetic Relationships of Early Animals
    Metabolic Plasticity in Chemolithoautotrophic Thermophilic Acquificales: Models for the Evolution of Early Metabolisms on Earth?
    Revised: Evolution of Genome Architecture in de novo Yeast Species
    Developing Model-Based Temperature Constraints for the Archean
    Innovative Concepts in Exobiology
    Biological Implications of Variations in the Cosmic Ray Flux at Planetary Surfaces
    The Formation and Evolution of Tidally Heated Habitable Zones
    Investigating Morphological and Isotopic Biosignatures of Terrestrial Iron Bacteria -A Potential Mars Analog
    Ribozyme Evolution by Transactivation
    DESCOPE: Role of Minerals in Prebiotic Chemistry (Tasks 1 & 2 only)
    Experimental determination of the partial molal heat capacities and volumes of aqueous organic compounds
    Investigating the Localization, Regulation and Biosynthesis of 2-Methylhopanoids (Inst. Xfer) (2)
    Energetic Requirements of Cold Temperature Adaptation
    Hydrothermal Ecosystems in a Solar System Context
    Gordon Conference on the Origin of Life
    The Genotype and Phenotype of Last Common Ancestors and the Evolution of Molecular Innovation (1)
    Titan Tholins: Origins and Definitive Functional Potential for Prebiological Chemistries
    Absorption measurements of SO2 isotopologues with application to sulfur isotope mass-independent fractionation during SO2 photolysis
    [Sub-award from Oremland] DESCOPE: Continued Investigations of
    The Search for Life on Worlds Around Other Stars: A Spectroscopic Analysis of Volatile Biogenic Signatures Emanating from Geothermal Environments
    A Strategy for Identifying Microbial Signatures in Heterogeneous Iron-Bearing Minerals: Spatially-Correlated Optical and Chemical Imaging of Microbial-Mineral Interactions
    A Comparative Study of Precambrian and Cambrian Terrestrially-Derived Organic Remains
    Energy Transduction Inside Vesicles by the Photochemical Formation of NADH and Amino Acids with Colloidal TiO2 Particles
    Global Biogeochemical Transitions: Molecular and Isotopic Markers for Biogeochemical Processes During Major Redox Shifts in the Ocean-Atmosphere System
    Depth Gradients in Neoarchean Ocean Chemistry and Microbialite Morphology
    DESCOPE: Search for a Prebiotic Replicator (alternative backbone only)
    Replicating Vesicles and the Emergence of Life
    Photo-evaporation and the Stability and Evolution of Volatiles in Pre-planetary Disks
    Laboratory Studies of Early Earth Hazes: Aerosol Mass Spectrometer and Optical Measurements
    Aerosols and Clouds on Early Earth
    NASA Postdoctoral Program
    Molecular and geochemical analysis of hot spring cyanobacterial and Chloroflexus mats as stromatolite analogs
    Prebiotic Synthesis of Autocatalytic Products from Formaldehyde-Derived Sugars as the Carbon and Energy Source
    Prebiotic synthesis of autocatalytic and self-replicating molecules from sugars as the primary carbon substrate
    Evolution of preplanetary matter in analogs of the early solar system
    Enzyme-Free In-Vitro Evolution of DNA Tile Crystals as Model Primitive Organisms
    Theoretical Studies of the Extraterrestrial Chemistry of Biogenic Elements and Compounds
    Probable Eukaryote Fossils Preserved in Archean
    Sub-award from: Evolution of Biogeochemical Cycles and the Earth's Early Atmosphere (Catling)
    Photochemistry and impact-induced shock chemistry on Earth, Titan, comets, and beyond
    The Role of Oxidants in the Martian Regolith
    Fractionation of multiple sulfur isotopes during biological sulfur oxidation
    Deep-water microbialites in a perennially ice-covered lake: A key to interpreting ancient microbialite morphology (1)
    Prebiotic Routes to Carbohydrates Involving Borate Minerals (1)
    An experimental study of the generation and enantiomeric enrichment of sugars and amino acids in cometary impacts (1)
    The Evolution of Photosynthesis and the Transition from an Anaerobic to an Aerobic World (ROSES 2007)
    Archean paleobarometry (1)
    Thermal Behavior and Detection of Caves on Earth and Mars (1)
    Leaping to land -- physiology and phylogenetics of microscopic desert green algae (1)
    Signatures of Life in Ice (SLIce): A multidisciplinary investigation of organic signatures and habitat of life in surface glacial ice (1)
    Exploiting paleogenetics and experimental-evolution to reconstruct and recapitulate adaptive evolution (1)
    Dynamic Covalent Assembly and Selection of Prebiotically Plausible Informational Oligomers (1)
    Elemental, Isotopic, and Structural Characteristics of Earth's Earliest Life: Implications for Recognizing Remnants of Early Microbial Life on Earth and Elsewhere (1)
    Exploration of Mineral Associated Bio/organic Signatures: Meeting the Challenge in the Search for Signs of Life (1)
    Quantifying the Habitability of Low-Temperature Serpentinizing Systems (1)
    Intercalation Mediated Assembly and the First Informational Polymers of Life (1)
    Cerro Negro, Nicaragua: An analog for assessing the potential for life on early Mars (1)
    Organic Biomarkers: Community Diversity and Preservation in Silica-Rich Hydrothermal Systems with Implications to Mars (1)
    Chemistry of Biomarkers in Planetary Ices: A Laboratory Investigation (1)
    A Laboratory Investigation on the Origin and Evolution of Life (1)
    Habitable Planets: Oxygen and Climate (1)
    Measuring the abundance of the simplest functional RNAs (1)
    Prebiotic formation of membranes and the role of membranes in energy uptake: An essential step in the origin of protocellular life (1)
    Investigating the Formation, Stability and Enantiomeric Ratios of Non-Protein Amino Acids in Low-Temperature Condensed-Phase Reactions (1)
    Survival, Growth, and Evolution of Terrestrial Bacteria in Martian Environments (1)
    Genome-based Investigations into the Nature of the Common Ancestor of the Thermotogales (1)
    Micron-scale microbiological and microgeochemical characterization of sulfur cycling in microbial mats: a paired nanoSIMS sulfur isotope and CARD-FISH approach
    Carbonaceous associations with apatite in Precambrian banded iron formations (1)
    Biosignatures in Volcanic Rocks - Microweathering of Olivine on Earth and Mars (1)
    Effects of radiation damage on the geology of Europa and Ganymede (1)
    The Molecular Basis of Complexity: Using Network Analysis to Understand Evolution (1)
    Borrowing Biological Innovation: HGT in an Ancient Mariene Heterotroph (1)
    Temperature effects on protein evolution (1)
    Origins and Functional Potential in Complex Prebiological Molecules: Titan Tholins and related Organics (1)
    Biological Accumulation of D-amino acids in Endolithic Microbial Communities (1)
    Mars Subsurface Warming at Low Obliquity: Effects on the State and Distribution of Water (1)
    November 23, 2009


Astrobiology: Life in the Universe
  • Editor: Linda Billings
  • NASA Official: Mary A. Voytek
  • Last Updated November 23, 2009
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