The goal is to demonstrate circular dichroism-thermal lens microscopy (CD-TLM) as a technology for the direct in situ detection of biomarkers in future NASA life-detection missions. To date, NASA funded technology development of instrumentation for measurement of enantiometric excesses of target biomolecules has focused on traditional techniques that rely on chiral separation coupled to traditional detection methods (e.g., laser induced fluorescence, mass spectroscopy). This CIF project will demonstrate a new technological capability, CD-TLM, which will allow direct chiral-biomarker detection and eliminate the need for the pre-detection chiral separations used in traditional approaches.
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