2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The viability of Earth-life on other planets
Project/Area Number |
19K23459
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Research Institution | Tokyo Institute of Technology |
Principal Investigator |
Smith Harrison 東京工業大学, 地球生命研究所, 研究員 (50843934)
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Project Period (FY) |
2019-08-30 – 2021-03-31
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Keywords | Astrobiology / Networks / Metabolism |
Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In the 8 months of my research grant, I have focused on four main activities: 1. Developing the software packages that can address my research 2. Doing research by running novel simulations/scenarios 3. Submitting and revising a paper based on this research and 4. Disseminating and sharing my results and techniques through talks. 1. I've improved the reliability of the "ecg" python package I've been developing to gather omic and reaction data from biological databases. I've added more ways for users to filter data, and an improved command line interface. We hope to publish this package soon. I've streamlined and multi-threaded the Julia package "BioXP" that I developed to run network expansions on the data gathered from "ecg". I've also added the ability to limit reactions based on reaction free energies. 2. I've run network expansion simulations to identify organisms which can be viable on Enceladus, and found the compounds which need to be provided for non-viable organisms to survive. 3. My collaborators and I submitted a paper to Astrobiology (now revising). Revisions include completing network analyses on additional organisms with more diverse metabolisms, and incorporating energy availability. 4. I was invited to speak on this work at an international workshop (in USA) on panspermia in January. I took this opportunity to also meet with collaborators there. In March I was invited to speak at the 2nd annual Aquaplanetology workshop (cancelled due to COVID-19). This month I was invited to speak at the Interdisciplinary Origin of Life Virtual Workshop, hosted in the UK.
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Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
So far I have been able to achieve satisfactory progress on this proposal. Things could be going faster if I had money to hire a student.
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Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In the future, I would like to add more tests to the two software packages I'm developing in order to submit them for publication (the python package "ecg" and the Julia package "BioXP"). I would also like to run network expansions under more environmental conditions, and with more organisms and ecosystems. I would also like to explore what reactions need to be added to genomes to increase viability, as opposed to checking only what compounds need to be added to environments. I would like to share these results at conferences or workshops.
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Causes of Carryover |
The funds are being used next year because they haven't been fully spent this year, due to the short fiscal year of the grant and COVID-19.
The usage plan for my remaining budget will be split between conference travel and participation, including at least one international conference (using approximately 50% of my remaining budget); computation related costs, including buying additional storage and cloud compute time (approximately 30% of my remaining budget); and publication costs (approximately 20% of my remaining budget). If conference travel remains forbidden, I will instead spend that portion of my budget on additional computation costs in order to speed up more intensive simulations.
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Research Products
(3 results)