Team:Stanford-Brown/HellCell/Introduction

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Hell Cell

What is the scope of life on Earth and what are its limits? Is it possible for earthly life to survive the harsh conditions of space and other planets? Frigid cold, blasting radiation, withering desiccation, and corrosive pH are just a few of the extremes that such life would have to face. Does such a resilient life form exist? These are the questions that the synthetic astrobiologists of the Hell Cell squad investigated. Taking inspiration from the myriad extremophilic wonders of this Earth, we investigated what is essential to their endurance and which genes can be mapped to these qualities. Armed with this information, we have attempted to create genes that can be used in synergy to custom-engineer extremophilic Escherichia coli. This attempt was meant to be the first steps in standardizing BioBricks for such astrobiological purposes, and the aim was to produce a robust “toolbox” of resistance-conferring genes.

Sources: Scalice, D. (2012). About Astrobiology. In Astrobiology: Life in the Universe. Retrieved from https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/

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