Catharine Conley | |
---|---|
NASA Planetary Protection Officer | |
In office 2006–2018 | |
President | |
Preceded by | John Rummel |
Succeeded by | Lisa Pratt |
Personal details | |
Born | Catharine Anastasia Conley |
Nationality | American |
Other names | Cassie Conley |
Alma mater | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Biology |
Institutions | Ames Research Center |
Thesis | Spatial and temporal localization of the defects associated with Petunia cytoplasmic male sterility (1995) |
Catharine Anastasia Conley was NASA's Planetary Protection Officer from 2006 through 2018.
Conley received her bachelor's from MIT,a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Cornell University in 1994, [1] and obtained a postdoctoral fellow position at The Scripps Research Institute studying proteins involved in muscle contraction. [2] [3] Conley conducted some of her research using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans . [4] [5]
In 1999 Conley became a research scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center. Her research focuses on the evolution of motility,particularly animal muscle. One of her experiments was on board during the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. The experiment,the fourteenth Biological Research In Canisters (BRIC-14),survived re-entry and the nematode cultures were still alive. Some scientific data was recovered. [6]
In 2006,Conley was appointed as NASA's Planetary Protection Officer (see Planetary protection). [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] A NASA re-organization opened the job for competition in 2017,and Conley was replaced by Dr. Lisa Pratt in February 2018. [13] [14]
Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek caeno- (recent),rhabditis (rod-like) and Latin elegans (elegant). In 1900,Maupas initially named it Rhabditides elegans. Osche placed it in the subgenus Caenorhabditis in 1952,and in 1955,Dougherty raised Caenorhabditis to the status of genus.
Steven Weldon Squyres is an American astronomer and planetary scientist. He was the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca,New York. His research area is in planetary sciences,with a focus on large solid bodies in the Solar System such as the terrestrial planets and the moons of the Jovian planets. Squyres was the principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER). He is the recipient of the 2004 Carl Sagan Memorial Award and the 2009 Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Communication in Planetary Science. Squyres also received the 2010 Mines Medal for his achievements as a researcher and professor. He is the brother of Academy Award-nominated film editor Tim Squyres.
Howard Robert Horvitz is an American biologist best known for his research on the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans,for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,together with Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston,whose "seminal discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death" were "important for medical research and have shed new light on the pathogenesis of many diseases".
Sir John Edward Sulston was a British biologist and academic who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cell lineage and genome of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans in 2002 with his colleagues Sydney Brenner and Robert Horvitz. He was a leader in human genome research and Chair of the Institute for Science,Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester. Sulston was in favour of science in the public interest,such as free public access of scientific information and against the patenting of genes and the privatisation of genetic technologies.
Planetary protection is a guiding principle in the design of an interplanetary mission,aiming to prevent biological contamination of both the target celestial body and the Earth in the case of sample-return missions. Planetary protection reflects both the unknown nature of the space environment and the desire of the scientific community to preserve the pristine nature of celestial bodies until they can be studied in detail.
The Russian Space Research Institute is the leading organization of the Russian Academy of Sciences on space exploration to benefit fundamental science. It was formerly known as the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Cynthia Jane Kenyon is an American molecular biologist and biogerontologist known for her genetic dissection of aging in a widely used model organism,the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. She is the vice president of aging research at Calico Research Labs,and emeritus professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California,San Francisco (UCSF).
Caenorhabditis is a genus of nematodes which live in bacteria-rich environments like compost piles,decaying dead animals and rotting fruit. The name comes from Greek:caeno-;rhabditis = rod-like. In 1900,Maupas initially named the species Rhabditis elegans,Osche placed it in the subgenus Caenorhabditis in 1952,and in 1955,Dougherty raised Caenorhabditis to the status of genus.
James (Jim) F. Bell III is a Professor of Astronomy at Arizona State University,specializing in the study of planetary geology,geochemistry and mineralogy using data obtained from telescopes and from various spacecraft missions. Dr. Bell's active research has involved the NASA Mars Pathfinder,Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR),Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR),2001 Mars Odyssey,Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,and the Mars Science Laboratory missions. His book Postcards from Mars includes many images taken by the Mars rovers. Dr. Bell is currently an editor of the space science journal Icarus and president of The Planetary Society. He has served as the lead scientist in charge of the Panoramic camera (Pancam) color imaging system on Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
John Graham White is a Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Cornelia Isabella "Cori" Bargmann is an American neurobiologist. She is known for her work on the genetic and neural circuit mechanisms of behavior using C. elegans,particularly the mechanisms of olfaction in the worm. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and had been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UCSF and then Rockefeller University from 1995 to 2016. Since 2016 she is Head of Science at the Chan Zuckerberg initiative. In 2012 she was awarded the $1 million Kavli Prize,and in 2013 the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
The nematodes or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda,with plant-parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhabiting a broad range of environments. Taxonomically,they are classified along with insects and other moulting animals in the clade Ecdysozoa,and unlike flatworms,have tubular digestive systems with openings at both ends. Like tardigrades,they have a reduced number of Hox genes,but as their sister phylum Nematomorpha has kept the ancestral protostome Hox genotype,it shows that the reduction has occurred within the nematode phylum.
Interplanetary contamination refers to biological contamination of a planetary body by a space probe or spacecraft,either deliberate or unintentional.
OpenWorm is an international open science project to simulate the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans at the cellular level as a simulation. Although the long-term goal is to model all 959 cells of the C. elegans,the first stage is to model the worm's locomotion by simulating the 302 neurons and 95 muscle cells. This bottom up simulation is being pursued by the OpenWorm community. As of this writing,a physics engine called Sibernetic has been built for the project and models of the neural connectome and a muscle cell have been created in NeuroML format. A 3D model of the worm anatomy can be accessed through the web via the OpenWorm browser. The OpenWorm project is also contributing to develop Geppetto,a web-based multi-algorithm,multi-scale simulation platform engineered to support the simulation of the whole organism.
Judith Kimble is a Henry Vilas Professor of Biochemistry,Molecular Biology,Medical Genetics and Cell and Regenerative Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Kimble’s research focuses on the molecular regulation of animal development.
Project Starlight is a research project of the University of California,Santa Barbara to develop a fleet of laser beam-propelled interstellar probe and sending them to a star neighboring the Solar System,potentially Alpha Centauri. The project aims to send organisms on board the probe.
Lisa Pratt is a biogeochemist and astrobiologist who currently serves as the Planetary Protection Officer for NASA. Her academic work as a student,professor,and researcher on organisms and their respective environments prepared her for the position,in which she is responsible for protecting the Earth and other planets in the solar system from traveling microbes. Originally,Pratt did not see a place for herself in science,but with encouragement from her academic mentors and family members along the way,she has been able to accomplish much work as a scientist.
Eileen Southgate is a British biologist who mapped the complete nervous system of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, together with John White,Nichol Thomson,and Sydney Brenner. The work,done largely by hand-tracing thousands of serial section electron micrographs,was the first complete nervous system map of any animal and it helped establish C. elegans as a model organism. Among other projects carried out as a laboratory assistant at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB),Southgate contributed to work on solving the structure of hemoglobin with Max Perutz and John Kendrew,and investigating the causes of sickle cell disease with Vernon Ingram.
Erin Dolan is the Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Innovative Science Education at the University of Georgia. Dolan is a biochemist known for her research on engaging students in science research.