Emma Johnson 
(Advisor: Dr. Carr) 
Will defend a master's thesis entitled 
Technology Advancement of Single Molecule Detection Instrumentation for Astrobiology Applications 
On 
Wednesday August 21st at 10:30 am Microsoft Teams 
Meeting ID: 287 246 827 011 Passcode: WnJ6uH 
Abstract 
A major goal of planetary exploration is to seek evidence of life beyond Earth, including the direct search for life on other bodies in our solar system. Two of the most promising bodies we know of for this search are Europa and Enceladus, icy moons which have subsurface oceans, may be habitable, and could be inhabited. The Electronic Life-detection Instrument for Europa/Enceladus (ELIE) is an instrument that endeavors to search for amino acids, RNA, DNA, and other linear charged informational polymers on these icy moons through single molecule detection. The initial prototypes of this instrument were developed as an effort to miniaturize the benchtop nanogap detection instrument developed by Osaka University and were successful in proving that single molecules can be detected using this technology in a low-g environment. However, these prototypes were still quite large and required manual chip loading and cleaning for each sample run. To advance this technology, an ELIE 2.0 prototype is being designed to reduce the total system mass and volume, demonstrate automatic sample delivery, and introduce electrophoresis for improved control of molecular movement into the ELIE system. The initial design of this new prototype aims to reduce mass and volume of the system’s faraday cage, integrate and prove systems enabling gap monitoring, and create a coding structure to enable further development of ELIE 2.0. With this new prototype, the ELIE instrument will enable experiments that can further advance the TRL of ELIE. 
Committee 
•    Dr. Christopher Carr – School of Aerospace Engineering (advisor)
•    Dr. Álvaro Romero-Calvo – School of Aerospace Engineering
•    Dr. E. Glenn Lightsey – School of Aerospace Engineering