A recent article in Cleanroom Technology Magazine, reported on NASA scientists working in extraterrestrial sample storage cleanrooms described their experience using the Bobcat Air Sampler, which uses dry electret filters to collect airborne biological particles that are subsequently eluted using InnovaPrep's patented Wet Foam Elution technology for analysis using both classical and modern methods.
The NASA Administration began routinely collecting air samples in seven of the nine curation cleanrooms at Johnson Space Center, which include astromaterial samples that are extremely biologically sensitive.
"This dry sample collection method allows us to meet materials requirements for all the curation labs and reduces the risk of inadvertently introducing contamination as part of our monitoring effort. This method also allows us to preserve a portion of each sample for DNA extraction and next generation sequencing. DNA sequencing helps us to characterize the portion of the cleanroom microbiome that we cannot culture," the report stated.
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INSIGHTS FROM ROUTINE MICROBIOLOGICAL MONITORING OF AIR IN ASTROMATERIALS CURATION CLEANROOMS, Regberg, et al. presented at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2023
