Exploration of Meteoritic Peptides and their Relevance for the Origin of Life

About the role

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

Description

The exogenous delivery of prebiotic organic compounds to Earth likely played a role in the chemical evolution that gave rise to the origin of life. Meteorite studies have demonstrated that some of the chemical building blocks of life may have been delivered to the primordial Earth by small solar system bodies. While simple organic monomers, such as amino acids, have been heavily studied in the meteorite literature, the polymerization products of these compounds, namely peptides, have been understudied in the literature.

Exploring the peptide content of meteorites will better constrain the extent to which small solar system bodies could have delivered larger, more complex biomolecules to the early Earth. In turn, such insights will shed new light on the possibility that meteorites may have expanded the prebiotic chemical inventory en route to the formation of primitive proteins.

To address this issue, this NPP opportunity will focus on the development of new, sensitive analytical tools to detect and quantify a wide array of abiotic peptides. These techniques will then be used to examine the peptide chemical space in a suite of meteorites. The implications of this research will be directly relevant to the soluble organic analyses of samples returned by space flight missions, such as the NASA OSIRIS-REx and Mars Sample Return missions, as well as the JAXA Hayabusa2 and MMX missions.

Requirements

• Research experience in Astrobiology or a related field (e.g., origins of life, prebiotic chemistry, etc.)
• Experience in Analytical chemistry
• Experience in Chromatography and mass spectrometry
• Experience in Contamination control of precious samples

Qualifications

• Doctoral Degree

Skills

• Strong communication skills
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Knowledge of astrobiology and prebiotic chemistry
• Experience with analytical chemistry and mass spectrometry
• Experience with contamination control of precious samples

Benefits

• One- to three-year fellowship
• Opportunities to engage in ongoing NASA research projects
• Competitive salary and benefits package

Pay

• Salary range: $75,000 - $100,000 per year

Schedule

• Full-time position

Contact Information

Email: npp@orau.org

Application Instructions

A complete application to the NASA Postdoctoral Program includes:

• Research proposal
• Three letters of recommendation
• Official doctoral transcript documents

Location

Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland

Field of Science

Astrobiology

Advisors

• Eric Parker
• eric.t.parker@nasa.gov
• 301-614-5107

Eligibility

• U.S. Citizens
• U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR)
• Foreign Nationals eligible for an Exchange Visitor J-1 visa status
• Applicants for LPR, asylees, or refugees in the U.S. at the time of application with 1) a valid EAD card and 2) I-485 or I-589 forms in pending status

Questions

Please email npp@orau.org if you have any questions about this opportunity.