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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

A hybrid inorganic–biological artificial photosynthesis system for energy-efficient food production

Artificial photosynthesis systems are proposed as an efficient alternative route to capture CO 2 to produce additional food for growing global demand. Here a two-step CO 2 electrolyser system was developed to produce a highly concentrated acetate stream with a 57% carbon selectivity (CO 2 to acetate), allowing its direct use for the heterotrophic cultivation of yeast, mushroom-producing fungus and a photosynthetic green alga, in the dark without inputs from biological photosynthesis. An evaluation of nine crop plants found that carbon from exogenously supplied acetate incorporates into biomass through major metabolic pathways. Coupling this approach to existing photovoltaic systems could increase solar-to-food energy conversion efficiency by about fourfold over biological photosynthesis, reducing the solar footprint required. This technology allows for a reimagination of how food can be produced in controlled environments.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Maize tissue culture, transformation, and genome editing

The importance of maize (Zea mays L.) to global agriculture, world economy, and food security is widely known and increasing. Current maize breeding programs are deeply integrated with recent and rapid technological advances in genome sequencing, computational biology, and new genotyping and phenotyping technologies. Transformation and genome editing capabilities are a central hub to an array of advanced molecular and breeding approaches to crop improvement. Tissue culture and somatic embryogenesis play essential and central roles in maize transformation biology. Synergistic applications of maize transformation, advanced genomics, and genome editing provide a potent interdependent triad for functional genomics research and advanced molecular breeding. Implementation of advanced capabilities to transform maize and conduct genome editing will profoundly influence the dynamics of global agriculture ushering in a new era of varietal development and molecular breeding. With over 60.9 Mha planted in 2019 alone, biotech maize accounts for 31% of the world’s maize production. Up to 10% higher yields are achieved using new varieties generated using genetic modification technologies compared to similar conventional varieties. By extension, the impact new varietal releases developed through genome editing will likely be more significant. Further, advances in transformation and genome editing technologies will facilitate an even wider applicability for the development of new varieties with increasingly complex traits. The introduction of biochemical pathways and the use of synthetic biology have become increasingly more attainable. The future is of genotype independent maize transformation and genome editing, as the working platform will impact world agriculture, global food security, and plant science well into the future.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Habitat use by female desert tortoises suggests tradeoffs between resource use and risk avoidance

Animals may select habitat to maximize the benefits of foraging on growth and reproduction, while balancing competing factors like the risk of predation or mortality from other sources. Variation in the distribution of food resources may lead animals to forage at times or in places that carry greater predation risk, with individuals in poor quality habitats expected to take greater risks while foraging. We studied Mojave desert tortoises ( Gopherus agassizii ) in habitats with variable forage availability to determine if risk aversion in their selection of habitat relative was related to abundance of forage. As a measure of risk, we examined tortoise surface activity and mortality. We also compared tortoise body size and body condition between habitats with ample forage plants and those with less forage plants. Tortoises from low forage habitats selected areas where more annual plants were nutritious herbaceous flowering plants but did not favor areas of greater perennial shrub cover that could shelter them or their burrows. In contrast, tortoises occupying high forage habitats showed no preference for forage characteristics, but used burrows associated with more abundant and larger perennial shrubs. Tortoises in high forage habitats were larger and active above ground more often but did not have better body condition. Mortality was four times higher for females occupying low forage habitat than those in high forage habitat. Our results are consistent with the idea that tortoises may minimize mortality risk where food resources are high, but may accept some tradeoff of greater mortality risk in order to forage optimally when food resources are limiting.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Polyolefin Innovations Toward Circularity and Sustainable Alternatives

The unprecedented growth and socioeconomic impacts of polyolefins clearly outline a major success story in the world of polymer science. Polyolefins revolutionizes industries such as health care, construction, and food packaging. Despite the benefits of polyolefins, there is a rising concern for the environment due to high production volume (i.e., fossil fuel consumption), often short usage time, and problems related to waste management and accumulation in the natural environment. Creating a circular economy for polyolefins through effective recycling technologies has the potential to decrease the environmental impact of these materials. This perspective discusses polyolefins and their impact, existing and emerging recycling/upcycling solutions, and recycle-by-design alternatives that are challenging the status quo.

circular economy↗
DOE OSTI2024

MIBiG 4.0: advancing biosynthetic gene cluster curation through global collaboration

Specialized or secondary metabolites are small molecules of biological origin, often showing potent biological activities with applications in agriculture, engineering and medicine. Usually, the biosynthesis of these natural products is governed by sets of co-regulated and physically clustered genes known as biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). To share information about BGCs in a standardized and machine-readable way, the Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster (MIBiG) data standard and repository was initiated in 2015. Since its conception, MIBiG has been regularly updated to expand data coverage and remain up to date with innovations in natural product research. Here, we describe MIBiG version 4.0, an extensive update to the data repository and the underlying data standard. In a massive community annotation effort, 267 contributors performed 8304 edits, creating 557 new entries and modifying 590 existing entries, resulting in a new total of 3059 curated entries in MIBiG. Particular attention was paid to ensuring high data quality, with automated data validation using a newly developed custom submission portal prototype, paired with a novel peer-reviewing model. MIBiG 4.0 also takes steps towards a rolling release model and a broader involvement of the scientific community. MIBiG 4.0 is accessible online at https://mibig.secondarymetabolites.org/.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of Aluminum Feedstock for Additive Manufacturing

The rapid evolution of materials science and manufacturing technologies in recent years has offered new pathways to manipulate materials for bespoke manufacturing. Here we aim to develop feedstocks for applications such as radiator panels, fuel tanks, and structural components for outfitting. As a strong, light weight and thermally conductive material aluminum is ideal for these applications. An often-overlooked source of aluminum waste is food packaging used on the International Space Station. Reusing this waste stream will reduce the cost and logistics of regular sparing. In Space Manufacturing (ISM) will utilize this technology is such areas as sparing and outfitting. However, processing aluminum can present challenges, especially in the context of additive manufacturing and sintering, due to its high reactivity and tendency to form a tenacious oxide layer. Identifying appropriate binders and sintering profiles can overcome these challenges. Herein we present our work on obtaining aluminum powder derived from food packaging, binder selection for aluminum feedstock, and a demonstration of bound metal deposition printing.

aluminum↗
DOE OSTI2024

An outbreak of renal failure in asian dogs due to s-triazine adulteration of pet food raw material: Analysis of unique, green kidney stones formed as a result

Renoliths were removed at necropsy from dogs that had died from acute kidney injury in Asia in 2004 and submitted to our laboratories for analysis including elemental composition, mass spectrometry, and microprobe analysis. The presence of a mixed s-triazine matrix comprising melamine, cyanuric acid, and ammelide, but no detectable ammeline, was found in the stone samples we analyzed. The unusual and unique green coloration of these stones was determined to be due to the presence of biliverdin. The occurrence of these green stones distinguished the 2004 incident from another incident in 2007 in the USA and other reported cases. The presence of crystals was reported in renal tubules and collecting ducts in both outbreaks, but no stones were reported in the 2007 incident. Here, this difference suggested a variation in the disease process caused by mixed s- triazine ingestion. Careful monitoring of food additives is warranted to prevent future problems in animals and humans.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

The State of the Art in Root System Architecture Image Analysis Using Artificial Intelligence: A Review

Roots are essential for acquiring water and nutrients to sustain and support plant growth and anchorage. However, they have been studied less than the aboveground traits in phenotyping and plant breeding until recent decades. In modern times, root properties such as morphology and root system architecture (RSA) have been recognized as increasingly important traits for creating more and higher quality food in the “Second Green Revolution”. To address the paucity in RSA and other root research, new technologies are being investigated to fill the increasing demand to improve plants via root traits and overcome currently stagnated genetic progress in stable yields. Artificial intelligence (AI) is now a cutting-edge technology proving to be highly successful in many applications, such as crop science and genetic research to improve crop traits. A burgeoning field in crop science is the application of AI to high-resolution imagery in analyses that aim to answer questions related to crops and to better and more speedily breed desired plant traits such as RSA into new cultivars. This review is a synopsis concerning the origins, applications, challenges, and future directions of RSA research regarding image analyses using AI.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2012

Bioreactors Drive Advances in Tissue Engineering

It was an unlikely moment for inspiration. Engineers David Wolf and Ray Schwarz stopped by their lab around midday. Wolf, of Johnson Space Center, and Schwarz, with NASA contractor Krug Life Sciences (now Wyle Laboratories Inc.), were part of a team tasked with developing a unique technology with the potential to enhance medical research. But that wasn t the focus at the moment: The pair was rounding up colleagues interested in grabbing some lunch. One of the lab s other Krug engineers, Tinh Trinh, was doing something that made Wolf forget about food. Trinh was toying with an electric drill. He had stuck the barrel of a syringe on the bit; it spun with a high-pitched whirr when he squeezed the drill s trigger. At the time, a multidisciplinary team of engineers and biologists including Wolf, Schwarz, Trinh, and project manager Charles D. Anderson, who formerly led the recovery of the Apollo capsules after splashdown and now worked for Krug was pursuing the development of a technology called a bioreactor, a cylindrical device used to culture human cells. The team s immediate goal was to grow human kidney cells to produce erythropoietin, a hormone that regulates red blood cell production and can be used to treat anemia. But there was a major barrier to the technology s success: Moving the liquid growth media to keep it from stagnating resulted in turbulent conditions that damaged the delicate cells, causing them to quickly die. The team was looking forward to testing the bioreactor in space, hoping the device would perform more effectively in microgravity. But on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart shortly after launch, killing its seven crewmembers. The subsequent grounding of the shuttle fleet had left researchers with no access to space, and thus no way to study the effects of microgravity on human cells. As Wolf looked from Trinh s syringe-capped drill to where the bioreactor sat on a workbench, he suddenly saw a possible solution to both problems. It dawned on me that rotating the wall of the reactor would solve one of our fundamental fluid mechanical problems, specifically by removing the velocity gradient of the tissue culture fluid media near the reactor s walls, says Wolf. It looked as though it would allow us to suspend the growing cells within the reactor without introducing turbulent fluid mechanical conditions.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2015

Weaving Together Space Biology and the Human Research Program: Selecting Crops and Manipulating Plant Physiology to Produce High Quality Food for ISS Astronauts

Researchers from the Human Research Program (HRP) have teamed up with plant biologists at KSC to explore the potential for plant growth and food production on the international space station (ISS) and future exploration missions. KSC Space Biology (SB) brings a history of plant and plant-microbial interaction research for station and for future bioregenerative life support systems. JSC HRP brings expertise in Advanced Food Technology (AFT), Advanced Environmental Health (AEH), and Behavioral Health and Performance (BHP). The Veggie plant growth hardware on the ISS is the platform that first drove these interactions. As we prepared for the VEG-01 validation test of Veggie, we engaged with BHP to explore questions that could be asked of the crew that would contribute both to plant and to behavioral health research. AFT, AEH and BHP stakeholders were engaged immediately after the return of the Veggie flight samples of space-grown lettuce, and this team worked with the JSC human medical offices to gain approvals for crew consumption of the lettuce on ISS. As we progressed with Veggie testing we began performing crop selection studies for Veggie that were initiated through AFT. These studies consisted of testing and down selecting leafy greens, dwarf tomatoes, and dwarf pepper crops based on characteristics of plant growth and nutritional levels evaluated at KSC, and organoleptic quality evaluated at JSCs Sensory Analysis lab. This work has led to a successful collaborative proposal to the International Life Sciences Research Announcement for a jointly funded HRP-SB investigation of the impacts of light quality and fertilizer on salad crop productivity, nutrition, and flavor in Veggie on the ISS. With this work, and potentially with other pending joint projects, we will continue the synergistic research that will advance the space biology knowledge base, help close gaps in the human research roadmap, and enable humans to venture out to Mars and beyond.

International Space Station↗
NASA NTRS1990

The conversion of lignocellulosics to fermentable sugars: A survey of current research and application to CELSS

An overview of the options for converting lignocellulosics into fermentable sugars as applied to the Closed Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) is given. A requirement for pretreatment is shown as well as the many available options. At present, physical/chemical methods are the simplest and best characterized options, but enzymatic processes will likely be the method of choice in the future. The use of pentose sugars by microorganisms to produce edibles at levels comparable to conventional plants is shown. The possible use of mycelial food production on pretreated but not hydrolyzed lignocelluloscis is also presented. Simple tradeoff analysis among some of the many possible biological pathways to regeneration of waste lignocellulosics was undertaken. Comparisons with complete oxidation processes were made. It is suggested that the NASA Life Sciences CELSS program maintain relationships with other government agencies involved in lignocellulosic conversions and use their expertise when the actual need for such conversion technology arises rather than develop this expertise within NASA.

Petersen, Gene R.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The CELSS Test Facility - A foundation for crop research in space

Under the NASA Space Biology Initiative, a CELSS Test Facility (CTF) is being planned for installation on Space Station Freedom. The CTF will be used to study the productivity of typical CELSS higher plant crops under the microgravity conditions of the Space Station Freedom (SSF). Such science studies will be supported under the CELSS Space Research Project. The CTF will be used to evaluate fundamental issues of crop productivity, such as the production rates of O2, food and transpired water, and CO2 uptake. A series of precursor tests that are essential to the development of the CTF will be flown on Space Shuttle flights. The tests will be used to validate and qualify technology concepts and to answer specific questions regarding seed germination, root/shoot orientation, water condensation and recycling, nutrient delivery, and liquid/gas phase interactions.

Straight, C. L.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Emerging technologies and radical collaboration to advance predictive understanding of watershed hydrobiogeochemistry

Increasing population and resource-intensive lifestyles are driving enhanced demands for clean water, food, and energy. In parallel, land-use change, climate change, and perturbations—including drought, floods, fires, and early snowmelt—are significantly reshaping interactions within watersheds throughout the world. While watersheds are the Earth's key functional unit for assessing and managing water resources, hydrological processes in watersheds also mediate biogeochemical interactions that support terrestrial life on Earth (Kaushal, Gold, Bernal, & Tank, 2018; National Research Council, 2012). Although society is dependent upon clean water availability, tractable prediction of watershed hydrobiogeochemical behavior, including watershed response to perturbations, remains a challenge. Central to the challenge are complex, multiscale interactions between plants, microorganisms, organic matter, minerals, dissolved constituents, and migrating fluids, which occur within and across bedrock-to-canopy compartments and along extensive lateral gradients of a watershed. Several recent community reports have synthesized formidable challenges associated with watershed science and technology (AGU, 2018; Blöschl et al., 2019). Here, we discuss emerging technologies and collaboration modes that are critical for developing generalizable insights about and predictive understanding of complex watershed hydrobiogeochemical behavior, which are important for underpinning optimized natural resource management.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1994

Publications of the NASA Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) program 1989-1992

Publications of research sponsored by the NASA Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) program are listed. The CELSS program encompasses research and technology with the goal of developing an autonomous bioregenerative life support system, which is based upon the integration of biological and physical/chemical processes, that will produce nutritious and palatable food, potable and hygienic water, and a breathable atmosphere by recycling metabolic and other wastes. This research and technology development is being performed in the areas of biomass production/food processing, waste management, and systems management and control. The bibliography follows these divisions. Principal investigators whose research tasks resulted in publication are identified by an asterisk. Publications are identified by a record number corresponding with their entry in the Life Sciences Bibliographic Database, maintained at the George Washington University.

Powers, Janet V.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Skin Damage Assessment by Ultrasonic Waves

Effective treatment of serious burns is dependent on early recognition of the extent of dead tissue and its removal to minimize the risk of infection and hasten healing. To meet the need for precise determination of burn depth, two physicists from Langley's Nondestructive Measurement Science Branch in cooperation with the Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and the NASA Technology Application Team, Research Triangle Institute, developed a prototype system that used ultrasound technology (originally developed as a means of detecting microscopic flaws in materials) for immediate assessment of burn depth. The system was commercialized by Westminster Supra Scanner, Inc., Orangeburg, NY, is produced under a NASA license, and was granted Food and Drug Administration approval in December 1990. It can be applied to the diagnosis of lymphatic disorders.

Source record↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Space Crop Production Gaps and Challenges

As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and stay for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance. Crop production can supplement a pre-packaged space diet to provide nutrition and dietary variety for space crews. In future missions, bioregenerative approaches may be used to generate a larger percentage of the diet, as well as help to reduce life support system burdens and resupply from Earth. Plants may also provide behavioral health benefits to crew members living in the isolated, confined environment of a space habitat. A number of unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other reduced gravity surfaces like the moon and Mars. Testing plant growth inside the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from Earth. We are also gaining a better understanding of food safety concerns and the behavior of space plant microbiomes and plant pathogens, but major gaps in knowledge remain. As we move from research towards operational space crop production to enable exploration, there are numerous gaps in technology, knowledge, and practice related to space crop growth that must be addressed. Research and development in key focus areas such as effective water and nutrient delivery at variable gravity levels, autonomous plant health monitoring, growth system cleaning and disinfection, and selection of ideal space crops are needed to fill these gaps. Breeding or engineering custom space crops may impact areas including plant growth and development, plant physiology, produce nutrition, organoleptic acceptability, and post-harvest characteristics, and these may further enable space crop production scenarios. Space crop challenges are multifaceted and require diverse interdisciplinary teams working together to develop effective solutions. Solving these requires an array of skill sets from across the biological and physical sciences, engineering, and human social sciences. Solutions to help ensure food security off-Earth may also translate to more sustainable terrestrial crop production approaches, and regular dialog between industry, academia, and government organizations working in related fields benefit all. Additional help can come from engagement with student researchers at various levels through courses, participatory science projects, and open science activities which can provide useful data. Global coordination and integration between space agencies and partners will be essential.

Gioia Donna Massa↗