NASA Astrobiology Institute
CAN-4 Selections

The NASA Astrobiology Institute is proud to introduce the selection of four new teams, selected from proposals submitted in response to the NAI Cooperative Agreement Notice (Cycle-4) opportunity.

• MIT
• Montana State University
• University of Wisconsin
• VPL @ University of Washington

MIT (Roger Summons, PI)

Requirements for the Development and Maintenance of Multicellular Life
On Earth, at least 30 different lineages have achieved some level of multicellularity. But organisms with differentiated cells have evolved only six times: fungi; red algae; brown algae; twice in the green algae, including plants; and animals. The research of the MIT Team is motivated by questions like these: What combination of genetic, environmental and ecological factors led to the emergence of complex multicellularity on Earth? How does a planet become habitable by complex organisms? What genetic and developmental innovations were required to assemble complex organisms? How were new niches constructed?

Montana State University (John Peters, PI)

Astrobiology Biogeocatalysis Research Center
Iron-sulfide compounds are common in both biological and geological systems. The adaptation of iron-sulfide clusters from the abiotic world to the biological world was potentially an early event in the development of life on Earth and may be a common feature of life elsewhere in the universe. The Montana State University Team proposes to establish a research and education effort that will investigate and compare the physical and catalytic properties of iron-sulfur minerals and complex iron-sulfur enzymes. The studies will be aimed at providing the determinants that define the catalytic properties of iron-sulfur cluster catalysts using H₂ and N₂ activation as model reactions.

Team website: http://www.abrc.montana.edu

U. Wisconsin (Clark Johnson, PI)

Organic and Mineralogical Signatures and Environments of Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies
The University of Wisconsin Team will conduct research on the biosignatures of microbial life and habitable environments, in order to develop the interpretive framework needed so that mineralogical and isotopic measurements using Earth- or space-based instrumentation will provide definitive answers concerning life detection. A focus of their research will be the development of stable isotope biosignatures for elements that are critical to life (e.g., C, N, O), as well as those that were involved in biogeochemical cycling or microbial redox metabolism (e.g., S, Ca, Mg, and Fe) whose compositions may be preserved in the rock record.

Team Website: http://www.geology.wisc.edu/astrobiology/

VPL @ University of Washington(Victoria Meadows, PI)

The Virtual Planetary Laboratory: Exploring the Habitability and Biosignatures of Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets
This interdisciplinary team will build on the existing models and tools developed by the NAI's Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) to further explore the potential diversity of other worlds, and to inform strategies for extrasolar terrestrial planet characterization. The VPL will explore the evolution and limits of terrestrial planet habitability and continue work to identify planetary biosignatures for a range of planetary masses, environmental compositions and metabolisms. Ultimately, this group seeks to determine the likely detectability of these planetary characteristics in disk-averaged planetary spectra.

Team website: http://vpl.ipac.caltech.edu/

These Teams join those selected in 2003:

• Ames Research Center
• Carnegie Institution of Washington
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• Indiana University
• Marine Biological Laboratory
• Pennsylvania State University
• SETI Institute
• University of Arizona
• University of California , Berkeley
• University of California , Los Angeles
• University of Colorado , Boulder
• University of Hawaii , Manoa