Three Frederick laboratories in the new Italian Astrobiological Institute

Three laboratories from as many departments of the University of Frederick are now part of the Italian Astrobiology Institute-Network of National Astrobiology Laboratories (IAI-ASTROBIOLab), created by the Italian Society of Astrobiology (SIA). The Institute, aims to promote the basic and applied knowledge of Astrobiology and to develop and coordinate collaboration among researchers from different disciplines by fostering the development of enabling technologies for terrestrial and space applications. IAI-ASTROBIOLab is made up of research laboratories from the Universities of Viterbo, Naples Federico II, Rome "Sapienza" and Tor Vergata, Turin, Bologna, Trento; L'Aquila, Parma; and the Laboratory of Astrobiology of the INAF-Archetri Astrophysical Observatory and the Institute of Biosciences and BioResources of the CNR -Naples Branch.

From the University of Frederick, the laboratories of the Departments of Biology (DB), Chemical Sciences (DSC) and Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (DIETI) are part of the IAI-ASTROBIOLab.

The DB lab, directed by Professor Marco Moracci, is concerned with the study of life in extreme environments and understanding the importance of such environments in the origin and evolution of living things on Earth or in space environments. The group studies microbial communities living in hydrothermal environments, their biological macromolecules and the molecular mechanisms underlying their stability that allow them to thrive in conditions incompatible with human life.

The DSC laboratory coordinated by Professors Marco d'Ischia and Paola Manini is primarily engaged in the study of thermal and photochemical transformation reactions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on minerals of terrestrial or Martian relevance, synthetic models of the Insoluble Organic Component of meteorites as a potential multifunctional system in prebiotic processes, transformations of formamide in the presence of meteorites, and reactions of astrochemically relevant molecules in slurries and on minerals from hydrothermal environments as model systems of prebiotic environments.

The DIETI Laboratory coordinated by Professors Andrea Irace and Giovanni Breglio focuses its research activities on studying the behavior of electronic devices and circuits under extreme operating conditions. The Laboratory has conducted activities in the design of integrated microfluidic lab-on-chips and design of electronic systems and circuits with low weight and volumetric footprint, the latter being particularly suitable for installation on satellites.
The IAI-ASTROBIOLab's network of laboratories currently represents the only national facility having as its objective the understanding of how life originated on Earth and how it may have originated or may originate on other planets, and the realization of innovative instruments intended for space missions, searching for traces of life on other planets and moons of the Solar System.