Jinjin Diao of Washington University in St. Louis and his collaborators have developed completely alternative feedstock culture-medium to drive space-based biofabrication
Abstract
Space exploration plays a key role in expanding our understanding of the universe.
Humanity’s exploration of the universe has spawned a wealth of innovative opportunities that have profoundly changed our world.
However, space exploration is a capital-intensive activity with an extremely low input-output ratio.
In addition, the depth and breadth of space exploration that humans can currently engage in is greatly limited.
One of the main reasons is that current space exploration relies heavily on Earth supplies, making exploration prohibitively expensive and unsustainable.
Biofabrication is expected to achieve self-sufficiency and sustainable development in space exploration, greatly enhancing the feasibility of long-term human survival in alien environments.
However, traditional bio-manufacturing processes also rely on the replenishment of raw materials from Earth, making it an ideal solution.
To solve these problems, A research team led by Dr. Jinjin Diao of the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis recently published a paper titled “Developing an alternative medium for In-Space” in the journal Nature Communications The biomanufacturing research paper provides a new solution for the sustainability of long-distance, long-term space exploration.
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in this study, the authors developed an alternative feedstock-driven in-situbiomanufacturing process (alternative feedstock-driven in-situbiomanufacturing: AF-ISM, which uses plastic waste, astronaut excrement and exoplanet soil as raw materials for microbial fermentation, uses biofabrication to provide food and other consumables for exploration missions.
A previously developed Rhodococcus jostii PET strain S6 (RPET S6), which can synthesize lycopene from PET plastic hydrolysate, was used as the microbial platform for testing.
The authors found that the RPET S6 strain could directly utilize trace elements from lunar or Martian soil added to the culture medium to provide cell proliferation.
To provide nitrogen and phosphorus for microbial growth, the authors tested anaerobic pretreated excreta.
The results showed that the diluted fecal anaerobic treatment solution could significantly promote the cell growth of RPET S6 strain.
In addition, the authors also found that the addition of exoplanet soil and excrement anaerobic treatment liquid at the same time had a synergistic effect on the cell growth of microorganisms.
Finally, the authors drove the lycopene biosynthesis of RPET S6 using a complete substitute medium (in which the nutrients completely replaced by the substitute feedstock) under simulated microgravity conditions.
The results show that the lycopene synthesized by RPET S6 in the AF-ISM process is almost equal to the yield in the Earth environment, which verifies the ability of the AF-ISM process to achieve sustainable production of various chemicals from alternative raw materials in space.
In addition, the authors conducted a technical economy (TEA) analysis and found that the production cost of the AF-ISM process extremely significant compared to traditional methods.
Overall, the study highlights the huge potential for AF-ISM as an emerging technology to move away from dependence on Earth supplies for space exploration.
In addition, the process can combined with other space technologies to develop long-term self-sustaining life support systems, which will critical to establishing settlements on the Moon and Mars and enabling future deep space exploration.
Invite for a job
Diao Jinjin PhD Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology recruit 2 Full award PhD candidates (long-term validity)
Dr. Diao Jinjin will join the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Guangdong in February 2025 to form a research team on “Microbial Synthetic Biology and Sustainable Biofuturing”.
The research group intends to recruit 2 full award doctoral students to pursue research in the fields of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering of non-model microorganisms (meanwhile, the research group also welcomes interested students to apply for master’s programs and research assistant positions).
The team will purchase a series of advanced equipment to build a first-class working platform, and make full use of campus resources to provide comprehensive support for multidisciplinary research.
Applicants should have strong scientific curiosity and work responsibility, and be competent in research work in interdisciplinary fields.
The team will dedicated to the exploration from basic scientific research on microbial metabolic laws to the development of applied technologies to help the personal and professional development of each member of the laboratory.
Applicants must have obtained or will obtain a master’s degree in a science or engineering discipline in 2025, and applicants who have published SCI papers will have a significant advantage.
Applicants should have strong written and spoken English communication skills.
