Lisa Brandenburg
Introduction
Are we alone in the universe? Most people have asked themselves this question at some point or the other in their lives. I am just as curious about it as everyone else, but finding an answer is actually part of my research work. Together with the SenseLife project, I am developing a new spectropolarimetric technique to search for biosignatures – especially homochirality – on other planetary bodies. My part of the project focuses on microbiology, since we expect extraterrestrial life to be of microbial form. I am particularly interested in studying (poly-) extremophilic organisms that could potentially survive the harsh conditions of space. In addition, my work focuses on the spectropolarimetric detection of biological pigments, such as chlorophyll, carotenoids, or melanin.
My scientific background is in biomedical sciences. I have studied Molecular Medicine at the University of Ulm (Germany), where I was working primarily on the unknown causes of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a fatal motor neuron disease. For my Master’s degree, I joined the University of Bern (Switzerland), where I studied Molecular Life Sciences with a focus on microbiology and immunology. There, I mainly worked on the interaction of our gut microbiome with the toxic metalloid arsenic, to which millions of people around the world are chronically exposed. With my current work as a PhD student in Bern and Neuchâtel, I want to get insights into the new and interdisciplinary field of astrobiology – combining microbiology and environmental ecology with physics and planetary sciences – and hopefully be around when we discover extraterrestrial life for the very first time in human history.
